From: Phil Holland [Phil.Holland@Home.com]
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 1:50 PM
To: Don Bell (E-mail)
Cc: KruegerK@district.north-van.bc.ca; Willy Schuurman (E-mail); Bill Maurer (E-mail)
Subject: Riverside Drive speed hump petition follow up.

Mayor Bell:

 

At the District council meeting on October 15, you, Council and District Staff were presented with a petition, signed by 255 residents.  The petition clearly stated that:  We the undersigned residents of the Riverside Drive area, hereby petition the District of North Vancouver to immediately remove the FOUR SPEED HUMPS located on Riverside Drive.”

 

The summary report that accompanied the petition specifically requested that council “Please arrange to have the speed humps removed as soon as possible.”  A copy of the summary report is attached for your reference.

 

To date there has been no response to this petition from the District.  This lack of response seems to indicate that you, the members of the council and the mayor have decided to ignore the desires of the vast majority (255 of 313 persons contacted) of the residents in the Riverside area.  Our concern is also supported by the reference to the petition as an “informal survey” in the minutes of the October 15th council meeting.  This reference could indicate that the mayor and members of the council did not even bother to read the petition.

 

Before taking the position that the district has chosen to ignore the carefully compiled petition that was presented to you, I am polling you and each member of the council to determine what your actions to this request have been.  I am also requesting a response from the district staff who were also provided with a copy of the petition.  Your response or lack there of will be compiled and included with a copy of the petition summary that will be mailed to every household that has asked council to take action in this matter.  I ask that you reply by November 11th because the response to the residents will be mailed on Monday November 12, 2001.

 

To assist in providing a uniform response to the Riverside residents, I ask that you outline your responses to the petition you received.  As a minimum, I respectfully request your responses to the following questions.

 

1)      Mayor Bell, what have you done to respond to the petition that you were presented on October 15th?

 

2)      Mayor Bell, will you support the request that was made in the petition?  That request was “Please arrange to remove the speed humps as soon as possible.”

 

I sincerely believe that Council has in the past, acted on behalf of the neighbourhood as a whole.  While you may have thought this is what you were doing when the motion to install the speed humps was passed, you are now in possession of a detailed petition, signed by the vast majority of the residents affected, who are asking you to remove the speed humps.

 

Each time we drive over the speed humps we are reminded that our neighbourhood has been hijacked by a very vocal but small minority.  We want our neighbourhood back!

 

I await your reply.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Phil Holland

2315 Riverside Drive

North Vancouver, BC

V7H 1V8

604-924-1087

Phil.Holland@ATTGlobal.net