Have your say on car parking in Herefordshire: Do you want to see on-street charges, park and ride and real-time signs? (From Ledbury Reporter)
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Have your say on car parking in Herefordshire: Do you want to see on-street charges, park and ride and real-time signs?
9:00am Friday 26th October 2012 in News
CAR parking in Hereford is getting a major overhaul with prices going up and the number of long stay spaces in the city centre going down.
Herefordshire Council’s proposed parking strategy - published this month - includes plans to introduce fees for on-street parking in Hereford, move long stay car parks out of the city centre and install real-time signs to help drivers find spaces.
In its consultation document, the council says charging drivers to park on the street could help reduce some of the unnecessary car journeys that cause congestion.
A feasibility study into on-street parking is expected to be carried out soon and, if “viable options” are found, could be introduced between 2015 and 2021.
There are currently more than 5,000 public car parking spaces in Hereford city.
Only half are controlled by the council. The rest are not subject to council rules and the report recognises that the availability of non-council spaces, such as the option of parking at Asda and Tesco for free, could undermine the council’s strategy, which it hopes will reduce the number of short city car trips.
The report also touches on the council’s longterm plan to develop park-and-ride stations to the north and south of the city.
Parking changes in market towns too
The council is also making changes to parking in Ross-on-Wye, Kington, Leominster, Ledbury and Bromyard.
The consultation document says, like in Hereford, long stay parking should be located further away from town centres.
There are no plans to introduce on-street parking charges in the market towns, but the introduction of limited waiting restrictions would mean shoppers and visitors use them for one or two hours only.
The report also makes it clear that there will be charges at all off-street car parks unless there is an “economic reason” to provide off-street spaces for free.
It specifically proposes to introduce charges at Leominster’s currently free Etnam Street car park.
Residents have until December to comment on the proposed parking changes.
- Read the report in full here - Herefordshire_Council_parking_strategy.pdf
Comments(27)
RuralJester
says...
11:19am Fri 26 Oct 12
Hahahaha ........Classic HC, like there is ever any economic reason to make something free. At least the council are good for a laugh.
Dave The Dumbest
says...
11:31am Fri 26 Oct 12
tenor12
says...
12:20pm Fri 26 Oct 12
bobby47
says...
1:27pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Yes, an excellent idea. The Council can share our pain because we are all in this together.
billyb83
says...
3:43pm Fri 26 Oct 12
bobby47
says...
3:51pm Fri 26 Oct 12
littlewhitebull
says...
5:12pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Hopefully, they won't think of following other councils and increasing their own allowances?
Cornwall councillors have just increased their own 'basic' allowance from £12,128 to £14,600 - a mere 20% increase!
Apparently, Cornwall rejected a 'suggested' rise of 35% - as they thought it was a bit over the top!
Cornwall's council workers, who have had their pay frozen for 3 years, must be very pleased for their 123 councillors.
bobby47
says...
6:10pm Fri 26 Oct 12
I'm pretty sure the previous poster billy is in the know with the Council and its parking enforcement strategy. If what he is saying is right, the Council have already got these plans in the pipeline which makes a mockery of this little bit of consultation.
The next battle will be, 'Good your not doing things in secret anymore but stop being economical with the truth by pretending that this is a consultation excercise when you've allready decided what you intend to do.
I gotta stop moaning!
littlewhitebull
says...
8:16pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Canterbury Council compulsory purchased land to the rear of houses in 1995. They turned the land into a car park. Residents who enter the car park to access the rear of their homes received letters from the council recently, informing them if they wanted to continue doing so they would have to pay for it. Amazingly, a council official thought it was a good wheeze to charge local residents £16 a year for a pedestrian licence; £122 a year for a vehicle licence; get everyone to sign a 13-clause licence agreement; and on top of that require each household to purchase £2 million worth of public liability insurance.
Since being deluged with letters of complaint, the council decided to “pause” the proposal and talk to residents!
Blimey! I hope HCC are not that mad. Are they?
Colin J Marschall
says...
12:32am Sat 27 Oct 12
Rocket-ron
says...
12:45am Sat 27 Oct 12
When are they going to learn, that park and ride is useless for many peoples visits to town. Myself and many others go to the town centre for specific purposes. To go and purchase items we need to load into our cars, Dental and Doctor appointments, and visits to the bank etc. All of which generally only need about an hour. This was well served to myself and others as pensioners, by a concessionary 2 hour parking token, until this greedy council cancelled the facility (they did not even offer the option to pay more for it). I therefore do not understand what goes through the minds of these overpaid, unelected officials, who incidentally will continue to park themselves for free.
Lukio
says...
10:13am Sat 27 Oct 12
I reckon that Stanhope (OLM developers) have had an influence in this. I think because they've got HC bent over a barrel, they've forced them into this move. When the OLM is completed, it will offer better parking arrangements that will further draw people away from, and put them off, the city centre. Call me paranoid but I reckon this is it.
As for the market towns, this is pure greedy revenue generation and nothing else.
bobby47
says...
11:49am Sat 27 Oct 12
It's like their strategy is based upon the positive outcome in Field of Dreams where dear Kevin Costner built a baseball field and people from far away just turned up. People will come.
Well, People won't come. People will definitely not come to the City centre if this strategy is implemented.
These are the thoughts of a group who should be in a holding pen on the Jeremy Kyle show. They are crazier than me and that's frightening. What on earth are they thinking?
What our City needs is free parking within the City and a reduction in business rates. Instead we get this little slice of joy. It's a bag of rats. A dog with fleas that itch and bite. It's, in short bloody crazy thinking.
WYSIATI
says...
1:28pm Sat 27 Oct 12
Colin J Marschall wrote:you can't be bobby47 cos I am - and Spartacus
Hey bobby47 . .wanna hear something funny. It has been suggested that you and I are the same person and that I use bobby47 as a "name" in order to stir up trouble!!
Hereford_born_and_bred
says...
2:02pm Sat 27 Oct 12
We need to attract people and businesses in to the city centre. City Centre shopping is the heart of all cities, a place to meet up, have a coffee and do some shopping. We need to encourage people to spent their hard-earned money in Hereford and keep Hereford alive. There are too many boarded up shops already because people are not spending their money there but elsewhere.
We need to encourage people to come to Hereford and not deter them away.
Keep car park charges reasonable and provide limited stay free on-road parking.
Build more underground car parks if necessary. Just do something positive for a change.
service
says...
2:10pm Sat 27 Oct 12
I really dont think it will reduce the volume of traffic but it may make them some money...if we decide to continue shopping here. .
TwoWheelsGood
says...
5:27pm Sat 27 Oct 12
megilleland
says...
5:59pm Sat 27 Oct 12
I suggest that an imaginative way of parking cars and freeing up a lot of space, which could be turned into greener public areas, would be to look at several companies which can double the size of the car park very easily and without a lot of serious construction work. They do this with a modular construction which adds another level to the car park. This modular construction can be removed and erected elsewhere as needed. Another advantage is that construction could make use of solar panels which could used in conjunction with charging electric cars. Maybe the council should look into this.
Links to modular car parking:
http://www.topdeckpa
rking.co.uk/features
-benefits-options.ph
p
http://www.design-bu
ildsolar.com/news/in
finite_energy_introd
uce_the_electroport_
bipv_solar_car_park_
canopy/
http://www.anotherle
velcarparks.co.uk/de
fault.html
TwoWheelsGood
says...
11:57pm Sat 27 Oct 12
KNIGHTROOK
says...
1:43pm Mon 29 Oct 12
I also watched as the many spaces remained empty during the day.
I observed how small and quaint the town is and how parking restrictions prevented both a lack of parking unavailability and a lack of customers to patronize the local shops.
How would this benefit an economically defunct city such as Hereford.
More free parking would be a benefit!
littlewhitebull
says...
6:35pm Mon 29 Oct 12
And how much of this money does the council spend on maintenance, etc. of car parking facilities?
megilleland
says...
6:58pm Mon 29 Oct 12
http://www.telegraph
.co.uk/news/uknews/r
oad-and-rail-transpo
rt/9415074/Councils-
make-half-a-billion-
pounds-profit-from-p
arking.html
Authorities in England and Wales saw their surplus from parking rise to £511.6 million in 2010-11 from £489.4 million a year earlier, according to an analysis of local authority accounts by the RAC Foundation.
Local authorities were warned by Mike Penning, the road safety minister, last year to stop treating motorists as an easy target to raise funds.
Town halls are supposed to use their powers to control parking to improve traffic flow and prevent gridlock on their streets.
They are prohibited from using these powers to bolster their income. However, many councils seek to get round this by earmarking the cash raised for other transport projects.
Westminster came top with a surplus of £38,196,000!
Herefordshire Council was listed at 148 out of 371 authorities with a surplus revenue of £863,000 from parking charges.
littlewhitebull
says...
7:56pm Mon 29 Oct 12
apdor
says...
7:53am Tue 30 Oct 12
Free parking isn't viable and is simply not clear business sense.
Am i the only one who thinks that paying £1.50 (£2 once the increase happens ) to park within a two minute walk of the city centre is very reasonable .....
megilleland - the surplus generated from car parking has to be ploughed into other council services and projects.
If the council were to offer free parking they would loose this near £1million and have to either charge more on something else of cut more!
One area i do feel the council can improve is by getting rid of the pay and display machines, as they encourage you to keep looking at your watch and stop shopping to get back to your can.
Why not introduce pay on exit parking schemes, which encourage shoppers to focus on spending money and not whether they will get a parking ticket if they are late !
apdor
says...
8:00am Tue 30 Oct 12
TwoWheelsGood wrote:The edgar street grid is investing in the future of Hereford, its designed to bring people into the county and stop those here from leaving!!
megilliland - all sound comments and ideas, but you're talking about capital expenditure - investing for the future - nooooo, our Council don't won't do that! All our parking is at ground level because that’s cheap to do! Don't invest - just charge more! The last time they built a car park was 25 years ago - Garrick House - and now that needs £1m of repairs (admittedly, the Council were robbed blind by the design/build contractors at the time, but where are those councillors who let it happen now?). The Council even stopped Sainsburys adding floors to their ground level car park.
People on these pages bemoan it all the time. how ever it is investing in the future !!! Yet you claim the council are not prepared to do this ....
In terms of Garrick House - im not sure why this isn't being bulldozed along with the rest of the market site and the car park included in the new development as an underground !!
Lukio
says...
9:26am Tue 30 Oct 12
I agree that exit payment car parks such as Maylord should be the way forward but bear in mind that with these, HC would lose the majority of revenue they gain in fining those who are late or don't buy a ticket altogether. They are surely not going to relinquish an easy source of income like that?
I fail to see where revenue generated from car parking and fines are reinvested in other projects and services when there are multiple failures to deliver even basic things as highlighted in one of my posts on another story on this site. Perhaps I'm missing the point and you could highlight where parking generated revenue is going to?
bobby47 says...
10:31am Fri 26 Oct 12
But of course, that ain't the way they're dressing it. They call it their strategy.
They want to reduce the long stay parking, send drivers out of town to reduce vehicular traffic in the City.
This strategy will I guess reduce traffic but alas, it will also reduce numbers shopping in High Town and that means more misery for business, jobs and future prosperity.
If I was in charge and I wanted to get rid of anyone visiting the City centre, ruin local business and increase unemployment then this is exactly the policy that I would commend to the public.
I suppose I should be happy that they're consulting us and allowing us to comment upon yet another crazy plan.