Agenda item

To receive announcements from the Chairman including:

·         Parking Strategy Consultation

·         Community Payback – ‘call for grot spots’

(papers attached)

Parking Strategy Consultation

The Chairman informed the Board that it appeared that there was a general feeling that parking charges were not wanted in Wilton, Tisbury and Mere and proposed a resolution to be discussed.  Comments included:

·        Wilton Town Council was opposed to car parking charges, and would support any other little town who felt the same. However it was noted that the car park in Wilton was the property of Wilton Estates.

·        WilCAP had reviewed the Parking Strategy document and resisted any plans for parking charges in Wilton. 

·        Mere Chamber of Trade informed the Board that if parking charges were to be implemented in Mere, the businesses would suffer as people would chose to go elsewhere, forcing businesses to close.

·        Mere Parish Council felt that the charges would be detrimental to the economy and were in support of the Board’s decision to put the matter to a vote.

·        The Board were informed that hundreds of complaints had been made about the consultation, as it was felt that it was prejudice against people without computers.

·        Chilmark Parish Council thanked the Board members for their support in opposing parking charges in Mere, Tisbury and Wilton.

·        The Transport Plan document was not readily available for people to take home to study, one man had spent an hour and a half in the library viewing the document.

·        It was felt that the consultation had not been carried out properly.

·        A Swallowcliffe Parish Clerk urged people not to be put off by the difficulties in place, and asked people to make representation in any way they could.

·        Trying to charge for parking in small towns and villages would not be cost effective.

·        Mere and District Link Scheme informed the board that events put on in local areas would be a disaster if people had to pay for parking.

·        Over the past eighteen months, the Tisbury Parking project had been compiling a report which was now available.

·        The Tisbury Parish clerk thanked the Board for the resolution.

·        A local hairdresser in Mere informed the Board that a great deal of her business was from passing trade. It was felt that those people would not stop if they had to pay to park.

·        One of the two car parks in Mere served the local doctors’ surgery, charges would result in patients having to pay to come and see their doctor. The other car park was used by residents in the evening and overnight, so to keep the streets clear for others to go about their business.

·        Car park charges would impact on the attendance of church functions, such as weddings, funerals and church services.

·        There was no public transport in Mere to bring people into work. People would not pay five pounds a day to park.

·        The number of buses that service the villages were once a week and not once a day as was suggested in the document.

·        It was felt that the consultation seemed to have been made as difficult as possible for people to comment, with only a yes or no option, in an aim to discourage people from taking part.

Councillor Richard Beattie stated that it seemed clear that no one in the room supported car parking charges, but that a choice had been offered. That choice was either take over the car parks as a community or to implement charges. The option to take over the maintenance of the car parks had not been discussed or considered as an alternative to having charges imposed.

Councillor George Jeans had previously declared a prejudicial interest in this item as he owned a business in Mere which may be affected by the implementation of parking charges. He thanked the people of Mere for the high attendance and their support. He informed people that copies of the relevant page of the document for people to submit their comments were available at the back of the hall. He urged people to take a copy to complete and hand back in. He added that if enough responses were received councils change their mind.

The Chairman read out a statement and asked the board members to vote on adopting it as a decision. Councillor George Jeans left the room for the vote.

Decision:

The Board voted in favour of the following statement:

In order to support the economic viability and sustainability of Wiltshire’s small towns and villages (Band 4 of the proposed Spatial Areas), the South West Wiltshire Area Board strongly recommends that there should be an assumption that there will be no parking charges for car parks or on street parking.

Wilton Town Councillor, Phil Matthews informed the Board that the town council had produced a document on the differences across Wiltshire to the Blue Badge Scheme. He asked the Board if they would take a copy of the document for consideration at a later date.

The Chairman agreed to consider the document at a later date.