Parking peace at last
Jan 28 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal
A COMPROMISE looks set to be finally agreed in a long-running dispute over car parking restrictions in the centre of a Northumberland village.
Shoppers will be allowed to park for longer in the middle of Corbridge if the revised system of time limits is approved by county councillors next week.
It involves drivers being given an extra hour’s stay in pay-and-display parking bays along Main Street, while restrictions remain at two hours maximum in the rest of the village centre.
The compromise aims to resolve a dispute between local businesses and shoppers on the one hand, and Corbridge residents who park near their homes.
The row dates back almost two years to when Northumberland County Council agreed to introduce a £50,000 traffic management system for the village centre, including a pay-and-display parking regime with a two-hour limit for all bays.
The introduction of the restrictions in summer 2006 led to local businesses claiming their trade was being hit because shoppers were not being allowed to park for long enough outside shops.
Traders collected a 2,500-name protest petition, saying the time limit doesn’t allow shoppers enough time to browse and could have a serious impact on their businesses. They said all of them had noticed a drop in trade and called for the maximum stay to be increased to four hours.
However, local residents, who can park at no charge and with no time limit if they have a permit, said the restriction should remain at two hours so that bays near their homes were not clogged up by visitors for a long period.
Since the dispute erupted, the Corbridge Local Transport Study Working Group and county council executive member John Smith have been working on finding a solution. They suggested a three-hour time limit as a compromise, as the original aim of the traffic management scheme was to keep the village centre for short-stay parking and residents.
A consultation exercise revealed a wide divergence of opinion, with many saying three hours was still not long enough and others claiming it was too long.
Now a report to the county planning and regulation committee on February 5 proposes a three-hour parking restriction in bays along Main Street, from Monks Home to the Angel Inn, with the existing two hour maximum stay remaining in the rest of the village.
There have been no objections to the latest proposal and the report says it should satisfy all parties and enable shoppers to park for a longer period.
