Car parking proposals

Elmbridge Borough Council proposes to introduce car-parking charges across the borough and is conducting a public consultation, closing on 14th January. Now is your chance – your view will make a difference!

The proposed charges for the Molesey car park are 40p/hour, or £3.50 over 4 hours & all day. Quarterly season tickets are £113 and annual season tickets are £412. Residents may buy restricted permits at £35 a year to park 8-10am, 4-6pm and all day Saturday.
Car parking will be free overnight from 6pm to 9am and all day on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Fines for parking offences will be £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.

The Council says that enforced car park charging will:

• Increase capacity in the car park for short-term parking.
• Reduce on-street traffic congestion from drivers seeking a parking place.
• Reduce on-street congestion and obstruction from illegally parked vehicles.
• Prevent use of disabled bays in the car park by non-disabled drivers.
• Limit all day parkers to a maximum of 50% of the car park.
• Income from charges will help keep down Council Tax increases.

Molesey Residents Association says that charging in our car park will inevitably lead to:

• Many more all day parkers parking instead on local residential streets.
• Residents in those streets demanding resident-only parking provision if they cannot park outside their own homes (as happened in Esher where charging was introduced recently).
• If introduced, resident-only bays will invariably reduce the overall parking spaces available. Residents would have to pay a yearly fee, typically £60, to use the bays, with no guarantee that a space would be available. Residents’ parking bays would prevent people part-pavement parking on both sides of a number of the narrow residential streets near the car park – again reducing the number of overall parking spaces.
• The ‘parking blight’ will extend to a greater area as people are forced further afield to park.
• All this will be enforced with traffic wardens, more lines and, in general, a less ‘villagey’ feel and a much more urban look to Molesey.
• Molesey traders could suffer from reduced popularity of Molesey as a shopping centre.
• As we see it, everyone – local residents, all-day parkers and shoppers – will all be paying more for fewer parking spaces than we have at present.
• We are in favour of parking enforcement in Walton Road to prevent the shambles we see at the moment. We also understand the need to keep the Council Tax down (but some say the set-up and running costs could absorb most of the ‘profit’, at least initially) but, overall, we think Molesey will be worse off if the scheme is introduced.

The consultation period ends on 14th January. Comments – for or against – must be in writing, or on-line (Parking Charges Consultation – Feedback form). You can write separately, or complete the slip on the flier, stating your reasons, to Head of Environmental Care, Elmbridge B.C., Civic Centre, Esher, KT10 9SD.

The MRA have issued a special flier concerning the Car Parking proposals for Molesey.
Deadline for responses is 14th January 2005.

Published on Tuesday, December 21st, 2004
in General Interest