Post in Residents Parking

Jul 11 11:56 UTC

-sighs heavily-

I was agreeing with Lloyd Fletcher that  the sheer volume of vehicles owned by
residents here is a significant contributor to parking problems - as well as
commuters (and you could add to that in areas around North St - the tension
between shoppers/revellers and residents, and throughout the ward, City fans on
match days)

I was suggesting it is maybe better to try and manage this rather than hope it
is all right.

I was suggesting it is going to get worse, not better.

I am not aware that I have ever said we should stop those from outside the area
(other than commuters) coming in - I was impressed at a meeting of small
businesses that they play a vital role in providing a local economy for the
area, and with it services for the whole community  and therefore their needs
must be catered for. (The last thing I want to do is lose my local dentist)

Can a scheme be free? Err, no. You can argue the toss over how much it costs
(and I happen to disagree that issuing 50,000 permits on bits of cardboard once
works), but you will pay for whatever the cost is - either through council tax
(ie getting the poorer areas of the city to subsidise you) or paying directly

You can argue over whether there is a problem at all. Well, that will be down
to perception and is probably a lot more complex than anyone has described.

You can argue that, given the economic climate, this is a very bad time to
introduce such a scheme, and I might well agree with you.

I posted figures on this list which showed an increase in car ownership here of
500 in 5-6 years. Do you think we have space for another 500 vehicles?

 I fully intend to respect the outcome of the consultation. If the area is
against it, then so be it. I just happen to think you are ignoring the
possibilities and avoiding the problem.

Charlie Bolton
Green Party Councillor
Southville
>>> <<email obscured>> 07/10/08 4:58 PM >>>
Charlie

If your aim is to stop commuters or those from outside of the community area
parking in the community area, then those people are the people you should
be charging! There's no way to justify charging people who live in the area
for parking in their own area, while the people who are supposedly causing
the problem just go a bit further away and park for free. If you support RPS
as a mechanism to prevent that specific issue, then any permits to local
residents should be free and unlimited - the people who live here are doing
nothing wrong in that respect. As a government body you can ask for DVLA
data and you will know which cars are registered to local residents. You
don't need to issue paper permits or anything else that costs money to the
residents (but even if you did its just a bit of cardboard and you only need
to do it once - I could get a quote for 50,000 printed permits that wont
cost 40 quid each!). Then people who want to drive in and park from outside
the area can buy a permit to stick in their window from a local newsagent or
supermarket and this will fund itself directly. That way the people coming
in from outside the area pay to park or be deterred from driving in. And if
you want to put wardens on the street to catch non-payers then the fines
will pay for the wardens, and if they don't cover it, then you'll know it's
not really that much of a problem.

But I still think it's just scratching the surface of a much more important
issue about how we want our communities to be.