Beware the creeping scourge of resident parking areas
Monday 8th February 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
From David Brown.
MY son parked in the Parade recently, some time after 7.30 in the evening, only to return to find an ‘advisory ticket’ on his car warning him that this was now a residents’ parking area and that he needed to display a valid parking disc up to 10 pm.
The proliferation of these residents’ parking areas seems to be yet another way of squeezing more out of the motorist.
Be warned, the signs are not consistent either, sometimes being white, sometimes green and other times looking like they have been put together in someone’s front room.
The other thing to note is ‘scope creep’. Since when did the Parade constitute being in St Thomas’ resident parking area? The ticket also seemed to have been issued by a non-legal body, ie not an official traffic warden.
Now I sympathise with people who live in towns, having lived in central London for four years with a car, so I know only too well the pain of parking, but the Constable must assign these areas sensibly.
I walk through the Parade almost every morning at 7:30 and have yet to see a single resident’s car, or any car, for that matter, parked in these spaces.
It seems we are flagging these spaces as residents’ areas as a means of being able to levy parking charges between 8 am and 10 pm, not so much through need, but more out of greed.
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Your son was very fortunate to have received just a warning only. I parked by the co-op in Georgetown to do a bit of shopping one morning and I returned to find a 50 pounds fine had been placed by a rediculously unkind traffic warden.
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Beware the creeping scourge of residents.
In 2001 the population was 87,000. 9 years later it must be more than 100,000+
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Another very sad fact is that many elderly residents now get very few visitors. With so few public parking spaces it is no longer possible to just drop in to see ones parents on the way home from work or as one is passing. And the enforcement of the residents zones is extremely zealous with even cars that had obviously got stuck in the recent snow being booked in Russell Street – the warden hiding until the owners had left and then clearing the snow off the windscreens to take their photos to be used in evidence.
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I live out of town and the only way I can get into town is by car, I had to take my two unwell young children to the doctors surgery in Clarendon road today only to discover that the on street parking has now been converted to residents parking, aisde from the laughable fact that there were very few cars parked and a lot of the residents in the area already have their own parking space, when I finally found a space which made me more than 10 minutes late for my appointment, I was told by the surgery that many patients had complained and they were holding a petition which I dutifully signed. This area if you know it is residential but a lot of doctors surgeries and medical practioners are in the nearby vacinity there is no allowance for disabled parking and the receptionist informed me they had worked out that the nearest parking was at gas place. This new scheme is forcing people to park in car parks which are already over-crowded and overpriced, if this is a way to reduce cars coming in to town it will just cause anger and frustration and god forbid a great deal of road rage!
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It is totally rediculous for planning to allow a doctors/dentists surgery to operate on a street with no parking.
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I Live in the ST Marks residents parking zone.
5 years ago there was no RPZ.
It was a free of charge disc zone.
During the day ALL the parking spaces would be taken up by commuters running back and forth changing their discs bit not moving their cars.
When a resident did finally find a parking place they would not go out unless it was really important as parking on return would be near impossible.
This affected the quality of life living in the area
What has happened now is,
The commuters are paying to park in the car parks where they belong.
The residents are paying a fair price to be able, sometimes (spaces are not guaranteed)to park near their homes.
There are visitor areas where visitors to the area can park by using a pay card, this is wonderful as before no one visited us due to ALL parking spaces being taken up by cheapskate commuters.
I would like to say a big thank you to Constable Crowcroft and his parish staff for making my, and the majority of the St Marks RPZ residents lives that much more enjoyable
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sorry PJG~6 you made the choice to live in st marks road and I am damn sure it was not in your lease to guarantee a personal on road parking space just for you, we the general users of st helier pay road tax to keep the roads all around the islands in good working order and beside if you want to play it that way you would be pretty hacked off if you had to struggle to find a space when going to one of the other parishes and needed to stop off for a short stop for a necessary appointment.
Pushing more people into car parks all located in one proximty of town might seem the answer to you but you sadly missed the point, the last time I looked sick, elderly, disabled and people with very young children do not need to park halfway accross town in a multistorey cark park for well over 1 hour to then rush to an appointment when all they need is to use a parking space for a maximum of 30 minutes to see a doctor.
the notion is ludicrous and increases the already costly business of a medical appoitment !!!
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Sam – I wasn’t aware we paid road tax? And prices of property mean that yes sometimes you have to take the cheapest option available and that will ALWAYS be in town. There is such a thing as a bus to get into town you know…
Though i do agree there is too much parking for residents esp when half of them don’t drive! Maybe we should adopt a system of locked (by barrier) car parks that residents who can prove ownership of a vehicle can get access to? Whenever you get a new car you can go to the parish with proof of address and they’ll give you a ticket for your nearest residential car park?
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sam #7
You made the choice to live out of town, Ime dam sure there was something in your lease about access to your property ? Same as mine
If I opened up my front garden for parking I would need access that would cost the area 2 parking spaces whether I used it of not.
Why not get a doctor who lives in the country or at least cares enough about his patients to supply a car parking ?
Plus get your facts straight, residents parking permits do not guarantee a space !
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