Free on street parking has now been removed on a number of roads across Thanet

50 Comments

1. I’ve had a lengthy discussion with the parking officer via email, regarding the consultation they mention for the Old Town residents parking. However when pushed they said it was in the local paper (couldn’t say which one) and on posters on lamp posts in areas affected. Firstly not everyone reads the local paper (sorry isleofthanetnews) and as a resident, myself and neighbour’s saw no posters. The parking officer did say they had no responses from this consultation. Am I the only one who finds this a bit…….fishy???

2. Nice on Boris

3. Cut the pay of the grossly overpaid Councillors and Council Staff!!

   • John, do you know how much backbench councillors earn for working hard for their community? Answer is a taxable £4500 per annum. Post tax approximately £330 per month for working many hours a week for their residents. Hardly ‘over-paid’ let alone ‘grossly’overpaid’.

   • I can assure that not all Council staff are well paid. Maybe the upper management are very well paid. But the rank and file manual staff are poorly paid, and have not had a real wage rise in the last 10 years.

4. I cannot believe the extortionate hourly charge around the old town and lower high street and surrounding roads the town is trying to turn things around.Another nail on the coffin for the town.

5. And all the time Westwood Cross parking is free.
   Another nail in the coffin of Margate Old town and High Street.
   I am appalled.

   • It’s Westwood Cross with its so-called free parking which has caused local high streets to become impoverished.

   • The “free” parking at WWX is not free. The land is owned by someone, and that someone has
     a) made an investment and expects a return;
     b) to pay business rates on that land.
     So everything you buy at WWX costs a few pence more than it otherwise should.
     The shame is that folk who use the bus are also penalised.
     Don’t forget that the big supermarkets in Ramsgate etc have “free” parking.

     • This comment is truly ridiculous. The land Westwood is built on is owned by Landsec. In 2018, their revenue was 753 million, operating income of 492 million and net income of 252 million. Business rates are paid by the shops leasing. Do not be so ridiculous.

       • Why is Andrew’s comment ridiculous? Does the company which owns the Westwood Cross site not have to pay rates?

         His point about bus passengers (and cyclists and pedestrians) also having to pay extra despite not using the car parks is a valid one. Why don’t the latter get a discount at Westwood Cross?

6. Certain streets in Margate old town have been excluded from being able to apply for residents permit, we were not told able any consultations via post and only found out we couldn’t apply via a piece of typed paper cable tied to lamp post 24 SourceForge parking restrictions came into play.

7. Yep Thanet council what a waste… But the turner center ( new car park) is going to be free????????. All that has been lost but the turner center will save Thanet. Joke that’s not funny

   • If that is true parking at the shed sorry turner centre is going to be free, why oh why does the the shed keep getting a free ride of the back of us rate payers? Art is middle class and they can afford to pay an entrance fee and parking . Disgrace that this section of society is so well looked after along with the million spent on trees !! Whar about the working classes or the people even worse of than the work class ?

     • Art is for everyone! And just because you appreciate the finer things in life doesn’t make you middle class!!

     • Art isn’t “middle class”! The Turner is not to everyone’s taste, just as Gothic Revival isn’t. And there’s nothing wrong with sheds.

8. Cut the CEO Horner and Higher officer salaries to pay for the cut in funds. Don’t penalise local motorists who are already laying extortionate council tax rates.

   • When you consider the damage that motorists do to the environment then it’s perfectly reasonable that they’re penalised.

9. Another rip off the country’s most corrupt council.

10. Goodie ! Really looking forward to yet more parking on pavements, grass verges and anywhere else. Why does it have to be £2.30. A £1 an hour would be a more sensible even tho it still restricts the amount of time spent in the town.
    Suppose they could reinstate a decent bus service with the money they take. Can’t see that happening tho

11. why do we not sack these incompetent councillors no wonder traders are having problems,they are encouraging people to go to Westwood because of their stupid decisions.it would be a good idea for the people to vote them out asap

    • The next TDC elections are in 2023.

12. We are trying to support our local businesses but you keep putting up barriers. Are the council members on the take from the owners of the big supermarkets / WWX??

13. What would be really good would be to see carrot as well as stick. The alternative to the private car (eg bus services) are woefully inadequate, with the exception of the Loop bus. Anything else, and the best you’ll get is an hourly service which packs up at tea time with no weekend provision at all.
    Instead of burgeoning motorists out of town, entice them in with better bus services.

14. Right, let’s get to the truth about this.
    1. On street car parking cannot be used to plug gaps in funding, it can only go into transport infrastructure or repairs.
    2.Currently there is over £900k in the kitty, so adding £390k to it, is a pointless exercise.
    3. TDC can only spend that money on projects approved by KCC and not in the general fund.
    There is more than a little of the ‘pork barrel’over this. Westgate complain and the last regime gave way.Why?
    What are they going to spend the money on? Cycle ways, better facilities for Bus passengers? Is the public interest really served by storing up more sacks of gold at Cecil Street.
    On street car parking charges at this level are a determinant on whether visitors visit or move on elsewhere. Canterbury can get away with these sort of charges, but not a hardly used, windswept, part of Thanet. What about the upkeep? Half the time more is spent enforcing and emptying the machines than what is received in return. What about all the off street car parks that are running at a loss? Why not sort them out.
    This is headless chicken management; always pecking at perceived grain in front of them, rather than fertilizing the field by putting something back so that there is more grain for all.

    • George you are pretty much spot on. However, TDC do tend to stretch the definition of what the money raised can be ringfenced for. For example, their new Climate Officer is being part funded by this pot of cash as outlined in their Budget report.

15. Anyone tried the residents Visitor parking permit farce? You go onto the website apply for your permit ( 2 choices a single permit or a block of 20 (3.60/52 respectively), you can only buy max of 40 a year ( less than one visitor a week) if you buy a block of 20 any unused tickets are invalid in the next financial year, quite why that is necessary?) then you have to upload proof of who you are ( this can’t be taken from that supplied for any existing annual resident permit application) then it takes upto 2 days to have the permit approved. So a guest arriving unexpected on saturday is unlikely to be able to get a permit before they leave. Completely bonkers, much easier when you could buy a book of twenty at the gateway and they lasted a couple of years.
    Whislt any money raised has to be used for parking etc, that doesn’t mean that funding that might have come from other council sources cannot not be reduced to match. Though i stand to be corrected if incorrect.
    As for the proposal for westgate being dropped, probably because enough people responded and made valid objections, main of which was that if you’re going to have officers enforcing pay and display bays then why not have them enforce the 1 hour restriction. The rational in westgate for pay and display was to deal with this not raise cash, thus ensuring the parking is used as intended. So patrol it as you would,if pay and display were present and fine those abusing the 1 hour, that’ll cover the cost of enforcement, if there are no fines to issue then there is not a problem. Simples.
    As ever nothing being done in respect of the parking at the westbrook tesco, an accident waiting to happen if ever there was one.

    • From what I hear TDC have a growing team of people tasked to “transform” perfectly standard and working processes into cutting edge technological masterpieces which then don’t work as you have described perfectly. Money is no object apparently. Other teams are shrinking whilst this team keeps growing apparently.

      • Well they’ve certainly transformed that particular piece of civic function from something simple and easy to convoluted in the extreme. Almost smacks of inducing social isolation, £3.60 to have a visitor, only allowed 40 a year, oh and don’t do anything off the cuff, you need 48 hours to get permission to have someone visit.
        Is there anyone that looks at these things sensibly, who ever it is has obviously not tried to use it and most certainly does’nt live in on of the affected areas.
        Do they really expect people to put up £52 for a book of tickets, surely 5 at a time would make sense and in the name of being able to live a normal life should residents not get say 10 free?

        • Not having free parking doesn’t generally induce social isolation surely?

        • Anyone can visit, you don’t need permission to have a visitor.

          • But you do need to pay £3.60 for the pleasure and then only 40 times max in a year. Or ask your visitors to park some distance away and walk which is hardly the mark of a good host. Look at where these areas are and in general they are not places that have the highest incomes.

          • It’s often possible to visit people without coming in a car.

          • True, but that’s not how the majority of use choose to live. This is a parking scheme not on meant to discourage car use, if it were it’d apply to every street and resident, when ( if it were imposed)all of a sudden there Would be shouts about the wealthy being able to afford a home with off street parking.

16. Why is Thanet District Council determined to kill off small business in Margate, they were warned Westwood Cross would do for the High Street in Margate and it has, M&S and all the other major retailers to leave Margate has been a disaster to Margate High Street and now this, killing off free parking in Margate whilst free at WWX.

    • Parking is only apparently free at Westwood Cross. The cost is put on prices in the shops there.

      • No doubt its reflected in the economics of running their businesses, but a mars bar bought at westwood cross will cost me no more than one bought on northdown road, but i can park at wx and not have to pay. So for me the parking is free in the wx transaction.
        The wonders of economy of scale and a larger number of shoppers.
        Its all very well saying car use needs to reduce, but modern life doesn’t support it.
        Most people work a reasonable distance from home,
        Standard 9-5 working hours are less and less common
        Public transport is not economic to run as a 24 hour frequent service
        Kids just don’t walk / cycle to school as they did
        Social activities are far more diverse and widespread than they were.

17. I am a resident along the Paragon, Ramgsgate.
    I must say, literally ALL of the paid parking spaces are totally empty.
    The math doesn’t add up – if I want to park free of charge for a few hours, I will buy something from Waitrose and park there! or… walk 5 minutes’ extra, keep fit and save my money! Disgruntled residents and locals will not pay £2.30 per hour when we can park in plenty of other places for free !

    • Well said. I live in that area too and almost all the parking on both cliffs is empty with cars dosplaced on to nearby residential streets. A totally pointless and misconceived scheme.

18. Anyone else noticed the budget proposal to put the Opposition Leader’s Council allowance up by 38% from April ? It’s almost as if they wanted to keep that pretty low key and under the radar whilst they pushed all these other charges through. Hoping the Ramsgate residents affected by these new parking charges voice their opinion accordingly.

19. So Thanet Council wants to KILL Kent as an area? All the empty shops along the South Coast is due to no the Sussex council charging for parking and now Thanet council wants to do the same. The only place that will get visitors soon in Kent will be Margate, all the other hotspots will close due to lack of visitors, shop keepers will disappear and then how will Thanet Council run then?

    • Alarmist over-generalization. There are many reasons why town shops are losing custom.

      And the sooner people put pressure on the government to improve public transport, the better, as car usage needs to be greatly reduced.

      • Not true. Where I lived previously, it was near Bluewater shopping centre. Lived there for 48 years. It DID kill both Gravesend and Dartford. No doubt

        • If Luan Cherry is correct, then town centres have been abandoned by shoppers for the sake of a couple of hours’ “free” parking in a badly-designed, pedestrian-unfriendly new out-of-town shopping centre.

20. I predict in the future an overpriced park and ride scheme out at Manston. No resident in Thanet will be able to afford the simple ability of parking their car outside their overpriced rented abode.
    Until… the tourist stop coming because there is no reasonable parking charges for a day trip. Thanet falls into disrepair.
    Don’t worry though Turner contemporary car park is taken over by our traveling, rubbish leaving, non tax paying friendlies…

21. This is fantastic news, it means the only nearest free parking to each town centre, is now pay and display.

    This will be a great help in further destroying High Streets even quicker.

22. When I objected to the proposal for the West Cliff parking charges, I did so on the basis that only introducing parking charges on certain roads but not on those adjacent like Liverpool Lawn or Albert Street would simply displace the problem. That is exactly what has happened this week with paid for spaces empty but those roads that are free with a bigger problem than ever. TDC should have taken note of residents concerns instead of ignoring them as usual. They should have made all roads on the West Cliff residents or pay and display parking and I hope that our three councilors, Peter, Raushan and Becky will pursue this with TDC officers as a priority.

    • The fairest thing would be to introduce parking charges everywhere. Or nowhere.

23. Why bother to pay to park along the Paragon when you can park across the road on the pavement!!! Bollards places between the shelters would stop this practice and where are the Traffic Wardens fining inconsiderate and selfish drivers who park illegally on double yellow lines and pavements. Not only would they cover their wages Traffic Wardens would make a profit for the long suffering council tax payers. At least, those of us who Year in year out pay our taxes!

24. I just tow a caravan behind my pick up I can park anywhere for weeks free of charge you should all try it. And I never get charged should I leave any litter or worst lying around.