Thanet District Council is proposing a new resident-only parking scheme at five seasonal car parks across the district following an outcry over a hike in parking fees.
The new resident scheme will operate in the following car parks: Albion Street, Chandos Square, Broadstairs Harbour, and Joss Bay, Broadstairs and Marine Esplanade, Ramsgate. The system will work in the same way as the current on-street parking peel and seal voucher scheme.
The proposed daily charge for residents would be £2.50 per day, as opposed to the current daily charge of £12. Residents will also be able to buy a book of 20 vouchers for £40, which further reduces the daily charge to £2 per day.
‘Comments’
Cllr Suzanne Brimm, Cabinet Member for Operational Services at Thanet District Council, said: “As part of our extensive review of parking across the district, we welcomed comments from the public over a six week period and are grateful to those who submitted their views.
“These responses reinforce the need to introduce an amended scheme which protects our residents and local businesses and ensures any impact on them is kept to a minimum. We hope that by responding to feedback from residents, the new scheme will encourage those who often visit our local shops, attractions and beaches to continue to regularly do so.”
Proposals
The proposals go to an Extraordinary Cabinet meeting on 18 July, at 7pm. If approved, the scheme would come into force by the end of July and will run until 31 October. In future years, the scheme will run between 1 April and 31 October.
Vouchers will initially be available via the Gateway and tourist information centres, before an on-line ordering system is introduced. Applicants will need to show local authority residency to qualify for the new parking voucher scheme.
The council announced new parking prices in April in a bid to boost the authority coffers. The compromise suggestion followed the submission of a petition by Broadstairs resident Roy Irving.
Timing
But the timing of the announcement, and the scope of it, has been questioned by Mr Irving. The petition he submitted is due to be discussed by Full Council this Thursday (July 13) with recommendations from the Scrutiny committee to look at two options that had been put forward.
These were to reduce the first hour to £2, which Thanet council says will result in a loss of £20,000 or £2.50 for the first hour which will result in a £10,000 loss of income.
The cost for additional time – up to £12 for the day/5 hours – would remain unchanged.
Mr Irving said: “Interesting” timing, as the petition and the report from the Overview and Scrutiny panel are to be discussed at full council this Thursday. The petition’s main thrust is about visitors and tourism and although a scheme for residents would be welcome, this proposal does not meet the main issues in any way.”
There were 290 responses as part of the council’s period for public comments on the new parking schemes.
A separate cabinet meeting will review the new parking charges that are now in place for 2017/18
17,000 parking tickets were issued in 2016 compared to 12,500 in 2015.
I thought it was unlawful for TDC to raise parking fees ” to boost the economy coffers”? So, the compromise is to allow residents to park for a reasonable fee, but no tourists or visitors? Not good enough, TDC! Get rid of £4 parking everywhere ASAP.
Authority coffers. They can do it but the money is ring-fenced
Ring-fenced for??….
Yes I agree!
Whitstable a more affluent area, it has much cheaper parking. If I want to park for 20 mins I don’t want to pay £2 . This is still pointing people to Westwood because its fee to park.
Wow! Are we supposed to get excited about this ‘compromise’. I can buy a book of vouchers for £40 which will get me 50p off the residents rates, assuming I want to park 20 times, but visitors still get clobbered? TDC, you are truly a bunch of backward thinking idiots.
Utterly clueless. The whole scheme will cost more to administer then actual revenue raised. Why not just reduce the charges for everyone and not punish the one source of real income we have… Tourism.
And what about Birchington when we have our families to visit and take the kids to minnis bay beach with all their stuff and no buses on sundays It just not fare we need transport on sundays too if we cant park ,Im a pensioner cant afford more than 1 taxi a week
This article doesn’t actually mention Minnis Bay. What is the situation there? I thought it had been decided to cancel the plans there?
As a long term visitor to Thanet and I worked in Margate for 20 years because I don’t live on the Island I would not qualify for any discount or season ticket if it where available like the multi story in Margate, now I will be more likely to travel to other coastal towns with more reasonable and even free parking on Sunday’s like Deal. I have been a regular surfer at Joss Bay since 1968 and find the whole thing a complete “Rip off Britain” approach.
Whitstable and more affluent areas have cheaper parking it’s not a compromise! Well It is it’s compromising the residents and businesses. We don’t want to keep visitors away from Thanet, I don’t want to spent every shopping trip or a meeting with a friend at Westwood because parking is so expensive.
Yet another iniquitous idea from a most stupid council.
Look, we pay for cleaning and maintaining the beaches to a very high standard, a visitor can come with food and drinks and spend very little. £12 for a day on the beach seems a fair payment.
£4 for an hour or part of the first hour is totally ridiculous. How many people will return to pay that? Another ukip disaster.