South Thanet MP, Craig Mackinlay and District and County Councillor, Lesley Ann Game are to push Thanet council to implement a residents parking scheme around Botany Road.
The pair have held the latest in a series of site meetings in Botany Bay to discuss the issue of parking in Botany Road and adjacent roads.
Parking in the road – which leads down to the beach – is a particular problem in the Summer months as people visit the beach at Kingsgate.
Various solutions have been suggested in the past, including seasonal residents’ permits and bollards to prevent parking on the grass verges and outside properties. So far these have failed to alleviate the problems encountered by residents who saying they are dealing with parking inconsiderate parking which would lead to problems for emergency services access.
Mr Mackinlay said: “The issue of parking in and around Botany Road is a longstanding one and, while as South Thanet’s MP I want to do all I can to encourage visitors to our beautiful towns, the local authorities must do more to ensure that residents are not unduly affected insofar as possible.
“To this end, Cllr Game and I have agreed to encourage Thanet District Council to implement a residents’ parking scheme in Botany Road and surrounding highways. Enforcement of existing double yellow restrictions must be ratcheted up, which would additionally be a source of revenue for the council. Residents report almost non-existent parking enforcement.
“Botany Bay is such a lovely area I understand why the beach attracts so many visitors, but a degree of consideration for residents needs to be exercised.”
Cllr Game, added: “I have been working hard to resolve this issue for the residents.
“Parking in the summer months is a serious problem as those visiting the beach park literally anywhere with total disregard for those that live there.
“Residents become prisoners in their own properties, their drives are blocked, doctors and hospital appointments are missed.
“Due to this inconsiderate parking buses and emergency services have great difficulty getting through.”
as residents we do not expect to have to pay for residents parking. while visitors park free… leave their rubbish outside our homes and in the roads and park on the grass verges if the road is full, even though many of us have paid a substanscial amount to have bollards put up to try to stop this. many of us are pensioners and we put up with verbal abuse from drivers and big coaches parking anywhere theres a space and then having to reverse up the road as they are too big to turn round, and they shouldnt even be in the road. but the signs at the top are “too small to see” or so they say. my son is disabled and when he was seriously ill and rushed into hospital the ambulance could not turn around because of cars parked all over the place. we moved here for the beach and view, but we never get on it in the summer bacause there is just no room.