Traders urge council not to scrap free parking bays for shoppers
A petition calling for free parking for customers at shops in Fiveways in Brighton is due to go before councillors.
Residents and business owners have been seeking support on social media to encourage people to sign the petition.
It asks for one hour’s free parking in Preston Drove and Ditchling Road for people using the shops. To sign it, click here.
So far more than 300 people have signed the petition which is due to go before Brighton and Hove City Council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee next Tuesday (21 September).
The petition said: “We believe that retaining the one-hour free parking for customers will encourage shoppers to continue to support local shops already suffering after a year of covid-19 related closures.
“The original introduction of pay and display parking in 2015 in Preston Drove had a significant and detrimental impact on trade for all businesses in the area.
“The current free parking was instated after our original petition to the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee in March 2015.
“We would like the parking to stay as it is: one hour free parking, no return for two hours.
“While we understand that the council faces numerous financial challenges, we do not believe that retaining the limited free spaces in Preston Drove and Ditchling Road would have a significant impact on income for the council and would be extremely damaging to the local area and businesses, which would be damaging to the city, the local area and the vibrancy and diversity of shopping for local people.”
The Environment Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm next Tuesday. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
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What’s the betting that the green council say no. They hate cars and people who show any kind of enterprise. Having been on the receiving end of an attempt by green councillors to damage my business in the past I know what they are capable of. Yes Frank I can back the statement up with evidence as you well know.
It is a Greenie councillor set up.
The petitioners should be using their votes to get the Greens out.
Sorry, no common sense parking allowed. Either cycle up the hill with kids in tow or use a diesel home delivery service like everyone else. This city does not want to see those shops taking up the space that could be converted to a coffee shop.
Of course the greens will abolish it. They’ll claim cutting car usage and pollution as their reason whilst simultaneously being willfully blind to the fact it will, more likely than not, lead to more car journeys over longer distances.
The real reason being it’s another cash grab of course.
Totally agree, so short-sighted! I now travel further by car as a result of the “Green” measures being put in place, spending my money in other towns as a result. I believe a lot of others do the same based on various posts and comments I’ve seen in the past.
As you say this smells of a cash grab preying on those who perhaps want/have to use those shops or do not want to travel further to find free parking options.
Sadly the businesses will suffer which presumably will leave additional gaps in the councils budget which they will no-doubt fill by finding other ways to tax the motorist!
I was always shopping at Seven Dials, but stopped years ago when quick, drop in 15 minute parking became SO difficult across Brighton and Hove. I don’t even bother looking now.
Like many others above, if family are here, we now go out to Shoreham for gatherings, and an Amazon Prime membership is less than a couple of parking ticket charges PER MONTH, so why would I shop locally when I can get anything delivered for far less money and hassle in under 18 hours?!
I don’t mean to be selfish, I support a lot of local businesses, but if councils kill the conditions by which we shop locally, then I’m not sure that we are to blame for failing high streets. The parking cash cow of our various councils is now harming local businesses, often in the name of unrealistic greenfrippery. As a commentator mentions above, we’re now driving a LOT further just to get out of town so we can get things we might need.
Serious question: why don’t you just hop on a bus or walk into town?
Do you live outside of B&H?
I’m sort of surprised you shopped at the Dials because there’s not much there (a bakery, some corner shops and a deli if I remember right) for a shopping trip. For 10 extra minutes on foot you could walk down into Western Road/North Street. Unless I have the wrong end of the stick, there’s not much to buy at the Dials heavy enough to require a vehicle. Is it disability, maybe? I just don’t get it.
There is a Post Office and a supermarket, with another one a bit further along in Dyke Road, as well as several independent shops – everything one needs for shopping – apart from a sensible parking arrangement, something that seems beyond the comprehension of the Greens. Meanwhile, all around Brighton there are masses of empty shops. Who, in their right mind, would now consider starting a business in one of them, with such a backward and destructive council in control? It is not about the environement, as they like to make out. As someone here as pointed out, it is a money-grabbing operation.