Shropshire councillors narrowly failed to halt plans which will see the number of ParkRight traffic wardens halved in the New Year.
Fears were raised yesterday that cutting the number from 28 to 14 will result in parking rules being ignored, leading to traffic congestion and trade being damaged in the county’s smaller towns, but the measure was approved by councillors overseeing the county’s move to unitary status.
By just one vote, members of the implementation executive yesterday backed plans for a revised ParkRight service which will mean a more lenient approach to motorists and fewer wardens to enforce regulations.
The executive also heard that the service will cost the new Shropshire Council at least an extra £406,000 to run because there will be less income from fines.Councillor Alan Mosley put an amendment that in light of ParkRight’s current ethos of a “more relaxed and less draconian” approach to the public, the service it provides regarding parking enforcement be retained.
He called too for Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council to continue managing the service countywide at its present level until the unitary council is formed and that the service is reviewed later in 2009.
But the amendment was lost by 11 votes to 10.
Councillor Mosley said that a “reasonable compromise” now seemed to have been found over parking, with fewer complaints being made about ParkRight.
However if the number of wardens was cut, the county would return to the “bad old days of indiscriminate parking” and there would be “chaos on the streets”.
Councillor Colin Taylor said it would be impossible for ParkRight to cover the whole of the county with fewer wardens.
Councillor Elizabeth Yeomans said the service would concentrate on the larger towns and the smaller ones would be disadvantaged.
She warned that streets would become blocked and this would be “very damaging” for businesses.
But Councillor Peter Nutting said wardens would still be operating in every part of the county and parking tickets would continue to be “doled out regularly”.
Councillor David Lloyd said there was now a “different climate on the streets”. Motorists were respecting the parking laws and a high level of enforcement was not necessary.
l Shropshire could be earmarked for an extra 1,900 new homes under regional housing policies.
This would bring the total up to 27,600 by the year 2026, the unitary implementation executive was told.
The executive agreed it would only support a figure of up to 1,900.
2 Comments
Congestion in Shrewsbury is caused by the busses not pulling in correctly, by the bin wagons just stopping in the road while they collect waste, and also by the double yellow lines not being put back after the roads were resurfaced, so cars are just parking opposite the bus stops and in narrow spots in the roads were it is impossible to get through.
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Just imagine ….
Hordes of people cramming into town…… to do what??
Just to go out the other side..?
Or … could it be…. to utilse the commercial facilities within the town, and hence bring much needed turnover to all those businesses threatened by the current situation ?
Lets not forget that, genrally, you don’t HAVE to drive into town, but IF you do, then there is a reason, and more often than not that reason is likely to be for someone elses benfit… and ….. at last….. someone has seen sense not to make it Parkright that benefits!
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