Those Blue Badge Bays in the Town Hall Car Park - YOUR VIEWS URGENTLY NEEDED

The borough council has a parking consultation under way about proposals to change the use of 12 Blue Badge parking bays in the Town Hall car park. The proposal is to make them "dual use" between 4pm and 7am.

Please let the council know what you think about these plans.

Time is short. The consultation can be accessed from the home page on the council's website by clicking first on the Town Hall Blue Badge parking Consultation button and then on "Town Hall Blue Badge Parking" in the box - or directly by clicking here. Please note, however, that for some reason this is NOT an on-line consultation.

The Liberal Democrat councillors feel that the introduction to this consultation is misleading. The reality is that for the majority of the time, day and night, there are at least 10 Blue Badge bays completely empty. Hundreds of "observations" were carried out over a period of 6 months to gauge use of these spaces. Lib Dems proposed that 6 bays should be returned to general use (not shared use) and the rest remain for Blue Badge holders. However the Residents' Party in control of our borough council voted against this suggestion.

The proposals as they stand will do little to help shoppers who want to use this most central of all Epsom's short-term car parks. Lib Dem councillors have received complaints from shoppers who say they can no longer use the Town Hall car park at busy times because they just aren't enough general use spaces. They have been irritated by the large number of empty Blue Badge spaces.

Lib Dem councillors have also received complaints from Blue Badge holders themselves who tell us that the 20 spaces provided for Blue Badge holders are too many - they say they park on the road nearby instead because it's free!

Space for shoppers will soon be even further restricted in this car park because the Police have a new local HQ within the Town Hall itself and require dedicated parking bays for their vehicles. If the Travelodge hotel next door receives planning permission there could be even greater pressure on general use parking bays here.

The consultation ends on 12th March. Write to the Parking Manager at Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, Town Hall, The Parade, Epsom KT18 5BY. Or email contactus@epsom-ewell.gov.uk heading your email Parking Consultation.