ePetition - Keep the Free Customer Parking in Preston Drove and Ditchling Road, Fiveways
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ePetition details
Keep the Free Customer Parking in Preston Drove and Ditchling Road, Fiveways
Original Introduction of Pay & Display parking in 2015 on Preston Drove had a significant & detrimental impact on trade for all businesses in the area.
The current free parking was instated after our original petition to the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, March 2015.
We would like the parking to stay as it is: 1 hour free parking, no return for 2 hours.
Whilst we understand that the council faces numerous financial
challenges, we do not believe that retaining the limited free
spaces on Preston Drove and Ditchling Road, would have a
significant impact on income for the council, and would be
extremely damaging to the local area and businesses, which would be
damaging to the city, the local area and the vibrancy and diversity
of shopping for local people.
This ePetition ran from 25/06/2021 to 20/09/2021 and has now finished.
650 people signed this ePetition.
Council response
The changes in free parking to paid parking were agreed
following initial discussions at a number of Policy & Resources
(P&R) Committee in late 2020 / early 2021. This was then
approved by the members of the Environment, Transport &
Sustainability Committee on 19th Jan 21 and ultimately at Full
Budget Council on 25th Feb 21. This was all part of the
Council’s budget saving proposals for the financial year
21/22 and from a parking perspective involved over 200 different
charging proposals which involves changes needed to all machines
throughout the City and the IT system for PaybyPhone.
We do appreciate that any increase in parking charges can be
challenging for all concerned and none of us enjoy having to
increase parking charges across the city. As a Council we have had
to make significant savings for the current 21/22 financial year
and these changes were introduced to ensure there is better
enforcement of these bays to allow more short term parking to
support local businesses.