Is Residents' Parking on its way at last?

A meeting of the Local Committee on Monday 27th June will discuss the county council's "phase 6" proposals - which include residents' parking schemes for a number of roads in and around the borough.

If it goes ahead, this would mark the end of a long haul by the Liberal Democrats who were broadly in favour of the Borough Council's 1999 scheme, which was eventually thrown out by Residents Association councillors.

This time it is the County Council who are bringing controlled parking to the table, with permits set at £50 and a range of options for marked bays and in one case an American-style residents parking scheme without individually marked bays, allowing residents to park as efficiently as possible. Visitor permits will also be available.

However there may be a major hiccup in implementation. County Councillor Colin Taylor explains "The County say they won't put the scheme into place until the Borough enforces the 3 existing controlled parking zones which are still supposed to be operational in roads such as Hookfield. The Borough haven't enforced these schemes since about 2004." The matter was expected to be discussed at the next meeting of the appropriate Borough committee, but has apparently been withdrawn citing problems with the county council. "It's been both councils blaming each other instead of getting on with doing what the public wants", said Cllr Taylor, "but in the past week the Borough has confirmed it will be enforcing its 3 existing zones from September".

The phase 6 consultation also includes a wide range of yellow line measures proposed for numerous roads around the borough. The meeting will also consider launching a separate consultation for the modified version of the Pay & Display parking imposed by the county council's all-Conservative cabinet, but now with the first half hour free in some places. Details of any residents parking scheme, yellow lines or pay and display zones will not be agreed until the autumn, following public consultation during the summer.