Local activism can work
Changes to parking in zone 15 on Camden Road and Gay’s Hill
This is a big win for those aligned to our local councillor Richard Samuel’s thinking last Autumn. He tipped us off about this extremely complicated Traffic Regulation Order (TRO 17-014 North East Outer Area, Bath) which had three items that affected us. He objected officially on our behalf and leafleted us all asking us to send our objections through as well. Many of us did this and collectively this seemed to do the trick. In essence, our collective efforts:
- averted the loss of residents parking bays at the NE end of Camden Road. This is a relief to those of us who already struggle to get a space in zone 15 after 7pm in the evening.
- stopped a motor cycle bay being built close to the junction of St Stephen’s Road on Camden Road which looked like an ‘accident waiting to happen’. Far safer to leave your bike on St Stephen’s Road.
- supported the loss of one parking bay on Gay’s Hill which makes turning left from Belgrave Crescent a bit safer.
Evening parking difficulties
While we’re on the subject can anyone tell me why parking is unrestricted after 7pm. This is when parking is most needed for tired people returning home and we often can’t get a space?
Re: 7 p.m. cutoff for residents’ parking: the reason the parking spaces fill up after seven o’clock is that residents have come home from work. It’s not people from outside the area trying to park in Camden without paying and walking in to the centre – it’s people who live in Camden parking their cars, in the residents’ parking zone that they have paid for. If the parking congestion was a result of outsiders coming in to Camden to park after 7 p.m. there would be plenty of spaces after midnight when everybody had picked up their cars and gone home. In fact it’s almost impossible to find a space after midnight – Camden streets are bursting with parked cars – belonging to people who live here, not visitors. There would be no advantage in extending the hours. Camden has the most extended hours of any zone in the city – I don’t think there are any other zones where people have to pay on a Sunday or over Christmas when they visit Camden.
It’s interesting to see all these different perspectives which prompt ever more questions. “I’m a resident at the NE end of zone 15 and pay for a parking space. If I arrive home after 7pm, on occasions, I can’t find one, having driven for 10 minutes looking, and have to go further outside the zone and walk back. How can this happen? And why should I not ask for a refund from BANES for a lack of service? What is the ratio of spaces to allocated permits?”
To assume everyone gets home from work by 7pm is just wrong.
I live at the NW end of our parking zone which is an ideal place for those wishing for a free parking space from which they can walk into Bath for their evening entertainment. This is proved by the fact that some spaces appear overnight after the restaurants, pubs & clubs have closed.
Surely if we pay for ‘residents parking’ it should be ours 24 hrs/day, 7 days a week.
I must say I support this view, Nigel, and it is good to have first hand evidence from your end of Camden which is most vulnerable to evening parking for those visiting the Bath city centre.
And can anyone explain why it is just zones 15 and 16 that restrict parking on Sundays? We have to pay for our visitors’ parking on Sundays when there is much less demand for spaces and a greater supply in all the other parking zones; ref: the table within http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/parking-and-travel/parking-permits/residents-parking-permits.
And yes, if there was a safe parking alternative out of town we’d happily ferry our visitors and their luggage in.
That is the big question – why should your visitors come by car?