Tennerfest meal worked out a little more expensive that we planned

Friday 23rd October 2009, 3:01PM BST.

From Peter Falle.
THERE comes a point when greed and avarice triumphs over fairness and common sense.

In this case I refer to the parking regulations that seem only to apply in St Helier just as though it was an independent state, and not part of the Island.

There are, situated at the lower end of Peirson road, four paycard parking spaces. If one is lucky enough to find one vacant during the day, one is prepared to use a paycard and make one’s way up to Cheapside, feeling just a little annoyed that the rest of the road is empty, due to the fact that this road side parking is there for the benefit of the street residents.

On Saturday evening at 6.15 pm we parked in one of the afore-mentioned paycard spaces and, after meeting a guest from the Grand Hotel, we walked to Cheapside to have a Tennerfest early meal.

After a very enjoyable supper, we made our way back towards where we had parked the car, and to accompany this first-time visitor to the Island, back to her hotel.

Halfway down Peirson Road, we noticed a shadowy figure, in a fluorescent jacket, slinking around the corner in front of the hotel. Yes, all four of the cars had been booked, and yes, there is a very small sign on the post stating that paycards must be used between 6 pm and 10 pm, but how can the parish of St Helier possibly justify this when the rest of the road is for the exclusive use of the residents?

I then had to explain that this is the new Jersey way of extorting every penny out of the motorist.

What a wonderful example for a first time visitor to the Island, to see the money grasping ethos of St Helier Town Hall where motorists are concerned.

1
BigB

October 23, 2009 at 3:21 pm

You arent the only one – hundreds of people have been caught up by these signs – a clear stealth tax. These signs arent even clear – and in many cases are contradictory (top of Kensington place springs to mind – take a look)

Also can anyone explain WHY (and who approved) all the in town on-road parking spaces are systematically being removed – the top of La Motte St is just one example. 20 short term spaces vanished.

No wonder businesses are closing all over the place – shoppers requiring just 5 minutes in and out are being squeezed out and forced to buy of the Interweb.

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2
Tom Jones

October 23, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Avarice in Jersey? Never!

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3
Magnolia Man

October 23, 2009 at 9:19 pm

Would someone kindly remind me please?

What happened to the cackhanded plan to charge for parking on Sundays – when the parking cards were designed for use between Monday to Saturday inclusive?

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4
Adrian

October 24, 2009 at 1:53 pm

Simple answer don’t eat out. Save money by eating in. You get a lot more for your money and you can have a beer or two without worrying about losing your licence, or having to waste yet more money on an expensive taxi, if you are lucky enough to get one without waiting an hour or so.

Tennerfest isn’t that a misrepresentation since the meals are more than ten pounds now?

So people are getting stung for up to an extra 5 hours now are they? I always thought it was 8am to 5pm for scratch cards?

If you want to encourage people to use town make parking free for them. Motorists get stung enough through fuel tax now as it is.

Or if they had any common sense they would just add 1p fuel tax to cover parking costs, and do away with scratch cards. This would help the environment, and people would feel they were getting something for nothing, even though they weren’t. Problem solved and people are made a bit happier.

But we can’t have that can we? Let’s just wind people up till they crack shall we?

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5
Nellie Macon

October 25, 2009 at 11:34 pm

1.BigB – Yes, I commented on this a short time ago – TTS have a policy of forcing cars out of St Helier and part of this is to do away with 20 minute zones – those outside Le Lievres have gone too – so if you have anything bulky to pick up from there now you’ve had it!

Does anyone complain…..very few of us.

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6
Nick

October 27, 2009 at 6:04 am

This parking nonsense has got completely out of hand in St Helier, as has the shutting down and paving over of roads to create pedestrian precincts!

There are several sites in the Town where multi story parking (Two or three floors high,no more !) could quite easily be introduced without damaging the environment, and would treble the current number of available parking places.

Such buildings could be designed to be attractively faced to blend in with surrounding architecture rather than the 1960′s “Brutalist, Minimalist” look of most of the town’s existing carparks.

We have an ageing population,and threatened shops in St Helier facing increased competition from not only the internet, but also out of town shopping developments.

As for traffic,far more would be achieved if greater thought were given to organising commercial delivery and service traffic going to town locations, or passing through St Helier at peak commuting times!

For example, how about some centrally located sites allocated for delivery and service vehicles only ?

I am not talking about kerbside allocated spaces such as unloading bays, but actual off road sites, where loading and unloading can take place centrally within easy reach of commercial premises, possibly with various hydraulic loading and unloading vehicles (Trolleys and forklifts)generally available on site.

Also any new commercial or office development should have space allocated at the design stage for delivery and service vehicles.

In the interim, how about controlling heavy haulage and construction vehicle access to central town locations to certain hours?

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7
PJG

October 27, 2009 at 10:51 am

Peter Falle
The signs are perfectly clear and have been in use at the St Marks road RPZ for the last 4 years. One only has to spend a couple of minutes looking at them to understand what is necessary. You were nicked because you were either not paying attention to the signs or you deliberately ignored them. The purpose of these spaces is for people visiting residents in the area to park for a couple of hours. not for people who should have gone to specsavers to misuse.
Patriotic street car park is probably closer to Cheapside than these spaces anyway.

The RPZs are spreading because they are the only way town residents can park their cars close to their houses without having to compete with commuters looking for a cheep parking place, there are car parks for them.

Magnolia Man #3 PAY-CARDS ON A SUNDAY
According to the laws governing pay-cards to scratch all relevant patches but leaving the day patch on a Sunday unscratched is legal, and is stated so on TTS website.
If you are booked and quote that you could not fill in the cards as instructed by the instructions on the card, personally, I am sure that would be a reasonable defence if the prosecuted could not prove that you had been instructed otherwise.
Mind you one could only use that defence once!

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