Residents Parking Update

Added on March 9, 2010 

Hi,

For the past couple of years we (‘Keep Parking Free’ – a group of local residents) have been fighting plans by Bristol City Council to charge residents to park in Bristol, as well as limit the number of cars per household to 2.

The Council’s proposals particularly disadvantage students and others living in larger households. Medical students who need a car to undertake their studies have been especially concerned.

Plans for two ’pilot’ areas – Cliftonwood and Kingsdown – have been drawn up by the council and a decision on whether or not to go ahead will be taken at a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet at 6.00pm on March 25th at the Council House, College Green.

The meeting is during the Easter vacation but we hope as many as possible of those who are in Bristol will attend the meeting to help us put our case. Here are some details of what has happened recently:

Residents’ Parking Update

People in ‘Cliftonwood’ and ‘Kingsdown’ were last year promised a ‘final’ vote on whether or not they were in favour of Bristol City Council’s plans for residents’ parking.

The vote, organised by the Council, took place from mid January to early February 2010 and residents in both areas voted against the proposals – by 57.3% to 38.5% in Cliftonwood and 47.4% to 44.8% in Kingsdown.

However, despite the plans being rejected, the council is continuing with a ‘statutory consultation’, with Traffic Regulation Order notices on lampposts etc, in Cliftonwood and says it will only decide whether or not to proceed with the scheme at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet at 6.00pm on March 25th.

In Kingsdown, the ‘statutory consultation’ is not planned to start until around the end of March but the council says it will still go ahead with it – despite the huge cost and the fact that people have already said ‘no’ to the proposals! Even more bizarrely the council says that it plans, at the Cabinet meeting on March 25th, to hand over the power to decide whether or not to go ahead with the scheme in Kingsdown to an unelected council officer. And even worse, having promised a ‘final’ vote on its ‘final’ plans, the council is now looking at re-drawing the map – after it has got the results of the vote – to try to gerrymander some sort of ‘yes’ vote. No wonder politicians get a bad name!

How You Can Help

We need as many people as possible to attend Bristol City Council’s Cabinet meeting at 6.00pm on Thursday March 25th at the Council House, College Green to help us put our case. The meeting is open to the public – we’re not asking anyone to speak, just being there is enough.

We believe that ‘No’ means ‘No’ and the Council should accept the voice of the people and abandon these plans. Please help us try to ensure they do.

Thank you and best wishes

Bernard Cooke
‘Keep Parking Free’

PS For more information please visit our website, www.keepparkingfree.org

Scheme plans are available at www.bristol.gov.uk/respark