A campaign against the proposed residents’ parking zone in Hanover and Elm Park is growing.
A petition has been launched alongside the council’s consultation, and a Facebook group has also been formed.
In our poll, which you can still vote on below, 125 votes were cast against the scheme, and just seven in favour.
Concerns include the loss of hundreds of parking spaces, and the fact student households with multiple cars will be allowed to apply for as many permits as they like.
Meanwhile, a public meeting to discuss the plans will be held at Elm Grove Primary School on Wednesday, May 12.
Residents can view the plans at the parking information centre, Hove Town Hall, Norton Road from 6-28 May, 9am-5pm.
You can also email Mott MacDonald at hanoverandelmgroveparking@mottmac.com or call (01273) 365425.
The results of the consultation will be reported to the environment cabinet member meeting later this year.
It is hard enough to be Disabled in very hilly area. Without spaces potentially being removed from directly outside Disabled peoples homes, in streets that will only have parking on one side
Ms Keefe – it is very important that you make your particular views known to the Council in this consultation since the reason they rely on above all for reducing parking to one side of the road is that pavement parking (the only way we can use both sides) is dangerous/inconvenient for people who have disabilities.
One of the reasons I do not claim my disabled car to use with my blue badge is the fact that no matter where I can park near my home there is no chance of being able to park close to the places I need to go even with the blue badge – the hospitals, uni and supermarkets etc. So I use the bus which is very convenient for most destinations (especially the royal sussex) and on the rare occasion I need to travel away from bus routes or on days I am really struggling I find not running a car means I can afford to call a cab. As there is no way to get a disabled bay closer to my home than the bus stops it was a pretty easy decision to remain without a car.
Pavement parking is definitely a big problem for me – I turned down an electric chair as there is no way to get such a contraption past the parked cars and as I cannot walk sideways with two sticks its often hard on foot! I also see old people struggle with walking frames and parents pushing buggies into the road to get around the cars.
When you factor in the risks of people reversing into the main roads from the pavements, people parking on corners restricting other drivers view of the road and all road users having to weave in and out of the parked cars I would suggest that the way things are at present is dangerous and inconvenient for everyone!
Regardless of the issues people choose to present in this argument it always boils down to one underlaying issue – people feel they have a right to park where they please and damn the consequences. This simply is not possible and the status quo is unsustainable (on many levels).
I am truly dismayed that we are looking to set up a system of rules and punishments to try and solve this issue (a sign that we as a community have failed to communicate with each other and come to a compromise ourselves) but if we do not act then we should not be surprised when someone else comes in and assumes the authority we have squandered.
It seems that the only people opposed to the scheme are people who use Hanover as a free car park. As a home owner in Hanover I cannot wait for this scheme to come in. Every morning Hanover is turned into a race track for the like of American Express employees and others workers desperate not to pay for a parking space in a proper car park. Most residents I have spoken to would love to park nearer their own front door, especially those to have young families. Surely this scheme would cut down on traffic in the area, make the streets safer for pedestrians and children, urge people to use our public transport, stop people parking on the pavement, help with the environmental issues. The list goes on and on.
And all this for £2 a week, personally I cant wait!!!
Ian, I am a home owner in Hanover and I’m against the scheme.
This is because I’m not selfish enough to try to deny use of part of the public highway (which all car drivers have paid for) to non-residents/commuters.
A London visitor (relative or tourist) coming to Brighton shouldn’t be fleeced for arriving in a car.
When I (and you?) use my car I am a visitor to another street too.
It is entirely this attitude of “my wants/needs are more important than anyone else’s” that is ruining people’s lives in the UK.
We all paid for it, let us all share it freely.
….relatives can get guest tickets from the permit holder and tourist from London will most likely come down on the train. What is the point of public transport John? and how much is it to park your car in a car park these days? £5 a day in some car parks. And why wouldn’t I want the place I live to become a more accessible place? If everybody looked after their local community, i’m sure we would all have better lives. Measures have to be put in place when situations get out of hand and that is all that is being proposed.
Why dont you let us all know how you would go about tackling the parking problem without cutting down on the amount of people their cars in the area.
Nobody reacting to problems until it is too late is ruining this country not people fighting for a better environment to live in.
Goog luck with the parking matey
best regards.
Ian, I don’t understand “why don’t you…” paragraph. If people are parked safely I don’t think where they come from is relevant.
If your intent is to remove cars (wherever their owner lives) from the road than say so.
If you intent is remove “non-local” cars then I find that shocking.
“If everybody looked after their local community” smacks of lebensraum. The road is a publicly paid for resource, not something to be sold to us again only if we meet some ethnic criterion of being ‘local’.
I would guess/hope you’d object if the people next door to you didn’t want your car/children/whatever outside ‘their’ house or on ‘their’ pavement. The same goes for cars.
It’s not my, or your, road. It’s everybody’s.
We are currently living in the commercial car park for major corporations who have not been required to provide parking for their own workforce.
In my experience, and that of some of my immediate neighbours, we find it a lottery whether we can see our street when we park after work.
Those of us who require a vehicle (for whatever reason) are having to drive around the streets for up to 15 minutes before we can stop (can’t help but feel sorry for the workers arriving in the am who have to do the same). It isn’t their fault. An integrated transport system is probably the best answer for all, but that is a long term solution.
In the interest of residents in this ward the zoning scheme has to happen, if only to move the car owners east of Queen’s Park Rd back into their own streets.
I’m against the parking scheme – not because I’m a resident, but because (I’m afraid to say) that yes i DO use the hanover area to park in – because I reside in the centre of town where there is no free parking. I used to walk to work, until my job was relocated . I work nights, and whilst the car drive takes just 20 minutes, it is an hour on the bus (plus simply unaffordable to pay the bus fare and does also not feel safe given the hours I work) I appreciate residents frustration, but we are ALL frustrated with the situation.
Instead of letting the Council divide and rule amongst neighbours, which causes great distress, you should all look to where this started – namely, when a parking scheme was introduced in central Brighton and inexorably spread outwards pushing displaced cars into other areas which gave the Council the excuse to create other parking zones. We have just had all of this nonsense in our area (Zone E, north of Preston Park Station), a quiet little backwater, and the majority of residents voted against it. The Council decided to ignore its own guidelines that stated a majority of ‘yes’ votes were required before a scheme could be implemented, and put in our scheme regardless. The result of this has been a flurry of angle-grinding of paving stones, a forest of black notices, yellow and white lines, city car club spaces, bicycle spaces (far, far too many) and motorcycle spaces all over the Bank Holiday weekend. All I can say is, if you can afford a Judicial Review, then do that as soon as you feel you have enough evidence and money to do so. You are in for a battle that you cannot win, I’m afraid. We are not jaded up here, but the scheme goes live tomorrow. We have all had to pay £120 per permit up here, and there have been no restrictions on the amount of permits issued. We reckon, after research, that there will not be enough spaces for the residents. We battle on. Try not to cause bad feelings amongst yourselves. It’s the Council at fault so you know how to vote next time, don’t you? And will you sign our petition at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/ZoneEScandal
This is due to the council creating a famine so they can sell us food.
There’s plenty of space for cars (and everyone else) but the Greens have put in CPZs so it can remain half empty (Hove seafront, John Street, Queen’s Park, etc). That forces cars into the remaining free spaces to create a ‘reason’ for a new CPZ.
Vote the Greens out by all means but when you ask Labour if they’ll reverse any of this they won’t answer you (and you know why). I can’t imagine the Tories will make our public roads public again either. Add in the CCTV watching every number plate and the whole city looks like a rough draft for a new George Orwell novel.
Before you vote for a CPZ remember that they’ll be removing around half of the spaces. Voting for a CPZ so you can “park outside my own house” may mean – if you don’t get a permit – you’re prevented from parking anywhere in Brighton.