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Gen interest Gemeral interest RESIDENTS PARKING SCHEME in Lady Bay?
Gen interest Gemeral interest RESIDENTS PARKING SCHEME in Lady Bay?
| RESIDENTS PARKING SCHEME in Lady Bay? |
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When we first moved here from the other side of Bridgford to Lady Bay some 22 years ago we already knew that parking on match days would be difficult. At the time the first thing that came to mind was, “Yes let’s have a residents parking scheme.” Or not. Since then, a lot more people have more than one car per household (we still have one but I do sometimes have a hire car for work), and in the main we all attempt to park where we can and it works. Parking is sometimes difficult but not impossible, until match days and that is no different now than it was 22 years ago. So where am I now on residents parking schemes?A sensitively run adaptable and free scheme would be great but the reality is slightly different. As the covering letter with the questionnaire goes on to say, “Although most residents who own a car would be entitled to a resident and visitor permit it does not guarantee a space outside your property, and may not always even guarantee a space within the area, particularly where there are already too many residents’ cars for the road space available.” This is what I would have expected. I have also had experience of other schemes round the country and they can be expensive and very inflexible (parking tickets and wheel clamps etc.). See the trials and tribulations of people in the London Borough of Lambeth West Norwood area of the borough. A £65 annual parking fee to park in local streets - or 12 monthly instalments of £120 in total; new yellow lines on streets - reducing the amount of space available for legal parking; a maximum of 50 Visitors’ Permits per household, for £125 or pay and display bays with 4 hour limits. Luckily if one was introduced here (I assume), it would follow the Notts CC version below. Most schemes operate during the working day from Monday - Saturday. The times of operation are shown on the signs for drivers entering the controlled parking zone area. During this period many spaces are reserved for resident permit holders and visitor permit holders with a few provided for visitors to the area who do not have permits. Outside these hours and on Christmas Day, Good Friday and all Bank Holidays parking is uncontrolled except on double yellow lines. More detail on their website here http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/controlledparkingzones.htm I assume (again) that because our parking problems in Lady Bay are directly due to Match days or nights that any restrictions would be very specific, i.e. Bank holidays or Sundays when there is a match on the restrictions would apply, or nights when there is a match on the restrictions would apply? Call me cynical but I don’t see that happening here, far too complicated. If on the other hand people are concerned not about match parking, but neighbours having too many cars, a parking scheme will make it very difficult. All homes would be allowed only two spaces if we are lucky and they of course are not guaranteed. The current situation, though not perfect, works for now and a residents parking scheme I think will not help in the Lady Bay area in general. There may of course be exceptions similar to the schemes operating in the other part of Bridgford across Ratcliffe Road.Although what the residents there say about it I would love to know. So I am definitely against anyparking schemes- less bureaucracy not more for me. For a brief view of how bureaucratic parking can get have a look at DurhamCity’s version. So What Are The Alternatives?What I would like to see in the Lady Bay area is the Council finishing the Home Zone properly, reducing rat run traffic and reducing to zero the number of people that think Trent Boulevard and Rutland Road are extensions to Santa Pod drag racing. A possible solution would be staggered diagonal parking on some streets together with a one way scheme; this would mean no speed bumps yet a realistically enforceable 20 mph limit. (Now the 30mph average speed cameras are installed on London Road, the mobile speed trap that used to appear on Saturday and Sunday could be deployed somewhere more urban like Trent Boulevard.) Sorry I digress, so with staggered diagonal parking there would not be a straight drive through the street, but traffic would need to slow and wind though the parking (one way), and of course most importantly there would be more parking places. Thus curing two problems, parking and speeding, with a bit of white lining and a couple of signs, or am I being too simplistic? As for match days, well that is something we will just have to live with, you have to have something to moan about. Bird Blogger’s Husband  |
Through the door the other day came a questionnaire entitled ‘Residents Parking Scheme Questionnaire’ from a company, Scott Wilson, engaged by the Nottinghamshire County Council to test the water.
The Home Zone was a pilot and I think it has worked for us, but it can do with a major face-lift. With the newly re-widened pavements - how about actual paving slabs of some sort, concrete would do better than the tarmac we have at the moment out side most of our homes. That would further increase the sense of 'place' the Home Zone scheme intended to implement, also it would increase the value of our houses.