New Car Parking Charges Deferred

Posted on December 15, 2017 by shepwayvox in Shepwayvox // 1 Comment

Rory. LDowning St_TCllr Rory Love (pictured) was first elected in May 1987 for the Folkestone Harvey Ward. He was elected with 1001 votes, on a turnout of 41.5%. Cllr Love is currently Cllr for Sandgate & Folkestone West. He has been a sitting Cllr for 30 years.

There are those who say of Cllr Love that when he starts speaking one might as well get one’s pillow and duvet out. But yesterday – Thursday 14th Dec, Cllr Love surpassed himself.

He managed to raise very pertinent issues with regards to the latest car parking charges and has managed to have the issue deferred. The Parking charges were to be introduced in April 2018. Officers will now go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate the figures and bring it back to Cabinet in the new year..

Cllr Love mentioned that running costs would double from £30,000 – £60,000

That the parking charges affect his ward and this came so soon after a consultation on parking in Sandgate. He mentioned that perhaps the parking charges proposed for the district should go to consultation and residents parking permits charges be linked to inflation. There was also some discussion about off street car parking (car parks) subsidizing on street car parking.

Malcolm Dearden

Cllr Malcolm Dearden (pictured) Cabinet Member for Finance – Hythe Ward, believed the council were making “policy on the hoof” but this was rebutted vigorously by Cllr Monk and Love.

Meanwhile, once the whole report was deferred, this lead to Frederick Miller, SDC Transportation Manger, Andy Blaszkowicz, SDC Head of Commercial and Technical Services and Tim Madden, SDC’s s151 & Corporate Director for Organizational Change (all pictured below) scurrying away for a very hastily convened meeting. It lasted no longer than 5 minutes before both Tim and Andy rejoined the meeting. Fred returned some 15 minutes later.

Screenshot from 2017-12-15 08-46-01 Screenshot from 2017-12-15 08-46-36 Screenshot from 2017-12-15 08-49-24

So, Cllr Love has got the matter deferred, whether he will be able to bring the matter to a consultation where you the people can have your say is yet to be decided. It would be good if that were the case, but don’t hold your breath people.

Cllr Ann Berry Cabinet Member for Transport & Commercial agreed to the deferral

The new report will come before the Cabinet sometime in the new year. We’ll keep you posted.

The Shepwayvox Team

About shepwayvox (1845 Articles)
Our sole motive is to inform the residents of Shepway - and beyond -as to that which is done in their name. email: shepwayvox@riseup.net

1 Comment on New Car Parking Charges Deferred

  1. Meldrew // December 15, 2017 at 16:44 // Reply

    Our present MP has stuff to say about “on street parking” years ago which was amid quite a furore…

    “Parking should continue to be free for those who want to visit and shop in our town centres.

    Free time-limited on street parking in the centre of Folkestone, Sandgate, Hythe and New Romney – as it is now – encourages people to use and support local businesses at a time when they are recovering from the economic downturn.

    That’s my response to Shepway District Council’s proposed parking strategy, which sets out plans to introduce varying levels of charges to free up spaces and encourage greater use of off-street car parks by lowering the costs of using them. Over the last week I have discussed my concerns in detail with the Leader, Cllr Robert Bliss and other members of Shepway council and they have assured me that they will be given full and serious consideration as part of the consultation.

    I believe it is vitally important for our local economy for people to be able to drive into and park freely on the street in the centre of our towns, without having to worry about charges and the inconvenience of getting a ticket.

    The council does need to address the issue of residents being unable to park close to their homes and to encourage greater turnover of vehicles in the town centres, but this should not be at the expense of our high street shops.

    If you need to go into town to quickly pick up some shopping and run a few errands, then that should be encouraged.

    People are understandably concerned about what some of the unintended consequences of these proposals might be and I would encourage everyone to respond by taking part in the public consultation.

    Shepway District Council will be rolling out their public consultation programme from January, details of which will be announced. If approved the scheme would be launched in three phases, with the first in Folkestone from April 2012.

    You can find out more and have your say by visiting http://www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/201282/235/ (link not available)

    Local residents who regularly use Shepway’s car parks should also take advantage of the parking permit that lets you park for up to three hours a day every day of only £1 per week. Again you can find out more about this in the parking section of the council’s website.”

    http://damiancollins.com/keep-free-on-street-parking-for-our-town-centres/

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