What Next for Parking?

At first we thought they were students. They had clipboards and were wondering around pencilling in on a grid as they went. This was last week. And I think we can expect the same early this week, too.

An approach to one of them and it turns out that they were not students but monitoring our on-street parking. (Or, perhaps they were students but they had part-time jobs.) They were noting the number of cars parked on-street, how long they stayed, and where and when motorists parked unlawfully. There is certainly no shortage of stray parking where there shouldn’t be any.

Interesting that this was in the week of parking charge increases. They said that they were consultants for the county council and had been employed because there was too little parking available in town.

Too little parking? Perhaps that should be phrased, 

        ‘Too little parking in selected car parks at a cost that is perceived as right’

Clwyd Street: are the increases in parking charges driving more people to breach on-street park restrictions? Or is it just laziness?

For, there’s plenty of off-street parking space. It’s just people are reticent to pay for it. Market Street can get busy, Troed y Rhiw likewise on Mondays to Fridays, Dog Lane at times... but the others tend to have multiple spaces available at any time. 

We suspect that the revised charges put pressure on on-street parking, whether motorists park lawfully or not.