Campaigners finally win fight to get their pavement back.
A Bletchley resident has told of his joy at the installation of calming measures to stop motorists illegally parking their cars on his town’s high street pavement.
Ray Stagg Blackman says that five years of frustration and six months of emails, lobbying and ‘polite protests’ have finally brought about the placing of a series of ‘planters’ to prevent selfish parkers leaving their cars on the paved area of Bletchley’s Queensway road.
Last week, MKFM told how Milton Keynes City Council had promised to tackle the selfish parking issue with increased fines and said the planters would be installed in February.
Now Ray has said his months of relentless campaigning has paid dividends after council teams went into Bletchley this week to place the first of the planters.
Ray teamed up with Lorraine Rainbow Andrews, chair of Fenny Stratford Residents’ Association and, last November, residents staged a peaceful sit-in protest along Queensway, using picnic and deck chairs to reclaim the pavements by preventing vehicles from parking.
“The Queensway polite protest was the result of years of frustration from local residents over pavement parking in Bletchley,” said Ray. “Complaints had been repeatedly raised with MKCC, but little action had been taken.
“I set up a Facebook group in May 2024 to rally community support and push for change. The group rapidly gained traction, exceeding 500 members, all equally concerned about the issue.”
“The demonstration successfully raised awareness of the dangers posed to pedestrians, particularly those with mobility impairments, parents with pushchairs, and other vulnerable road users.”
But it wasn’t without incident – during his campaigning Ray has been threatened, abused, spat at and even attacked by motorists unhappy at being prevented from parking on the pavement.
“What we needed along Queensway was enforcement, but we were only getting traffic wardens for one day at a time,” said Ray. “In one six month period, 880 parking tickets were issued: that’s only about four a day. But there were more than 200 illegally parked cars every day.”
MKCC is preparing larger-scale improvements to the town centre, starting this summer, and will leave the planters along Queensway until more permanent work can be done.
But for now, Ray and his fellow shoppers and residents can walk along Queensway feeling slightly better protected from cars.
