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Chelmsford |
Call for action on Chelmsford parking chaos
August 31, 2010 11:52 PM
One local street where car parking is a problem
A call for action on Chelmsford parking chaos has been issued by the local Liberal Democrats. The increasing frustrations of residents and others (at Chelmsford's parking situation) were highlighted by the group, in a recent debate they called for at Chelmsford Borough Council.
The Lib Dems are demanding an early meeting of a cross-party panel to begin an urgent review of the policy which dates back several years and is now clearly in need of an overhaul
Residents' parking schemes are already not ensuring adequate parking in some streets near the town centre, while new flats and their visitors are adding to the pressure. In some areas parking on grass verges is spoiling the street scene.
Park and Ride is welcome but is not keeping pace with demand, and many commuters, shoppers and those working in Chelmsford continue to drive in to the town centre. Green travel plans are not producing the results they need to.
More and more students at the University with limited and chargeable parking there means students and staff are spilling into residential streets. Reviews of problem hot-spots take an unacceptably long time, and tend only to move the problem on to a nearby area.
The bureaucracy bounces problems and ideas back and forward between the Borough and the County Council. At the still growing Broomfield Hospital parking and its cost remain the source of many complaints.
In some places wardens seem over-zealous, while other areas seem to get little attention. Charging to use car parks in town on Sundays seems absurd when single yellow lines are all around. The list goes on….
The Borough recently decided to reject the County Council's proposed blanket rewrite of parking policy, on the grounds that Chelmsford had its particular circumstances and pressures and needed its own solutions. We agree, but nothing has happened to start seeing what those solutions can be. Lib Dem Spokesmen. At Full Council, Liberal Democrats Robin Stevens (Lawns ward and Deputy Mayor) and Graham Pooley (Marconi ward) called for
- an early review of the town's now outdated policies
- the setting up of a cross party panel to get this underway and push for early results, and
- for more immediate responses to problems as they arise.
Lib Dem Leader Cllr Mike Mackrory said, "We are were angered by complacency shown by the ruling Conservatives. They refused to accept that on street parking by non residents was a problem, probably because most of them represent the village areas.
"So far, our call for a cross party group to resolve these matters has been rejected. We will continue to campaign for action."
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