A new parking scheme has “divided the community”, causing chaos and fights according to a residents’ representative.
Ian Beck, from Hollingdean Residents’ Association, spoke out about the new south Hollingdean parking scheme before a Brighton and Hove City Council housing management panel meeting.
At the meeting last night (Tuesday 9 June), Mr Beck said that he had broken up fights between people over parking spaces and had never received as many complaints about any issue in the area over 10 years.
He said: “This parking scheme has turned the north of Hollingdean against the south of Hollingdean. This has created a north-south divide because the north hasn’t got a parking scheme. The south has.
“What’s actually happening now is people are stuck going further up Davey Drive, in Hollingdean, and they’re parking in the north area and there’s people parking on double yellow lines, in residents’ parking bays, blocking bus routes. This is causing absolute chaos.
“The residents of Hollingdean would like an open meeting about this because this scheme is not what we asked for in the first place. We asked for a light-touch scheme.
“People could park in Hollingdean but not people who were staying there for several days at a time.”
The scheme, labelled zone 14, has 750 parking spaces which Mr Beck said was not enough to serve the 19,000 residents in the area.
He asked if anyone involved with setting up the scheme would come and look at the problems it had caused.
A written response to concerns before the meeting from the parking scheme project manager Anthony Patchett said that details had been shared with Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure.
He said that the scheme was operating at 61 per cent capacity although this figure did not reflect the availability on every street.
Mr Patchett added: “We note the concerns raised regarding the availability of parking for residents, the difficulties experienced by visitors and reports of tension between neighbours.
“While residents’ permits allow parking across the whole zone, we appreciate this may not always feel convenient in practice.”
The housing management panel was told that the comments from the meeting would be shared with parking services who would be asked to visit the area.
All part of BHCC’s agenda to punish and inconvenience you if you own a car .
If you drive in Brighton, bhcc Transport dept hate you
Why not have ONE citywide street parking zone for ONE price? Easier for residents. Easier for Council. No resident is going to be parking where they don’t live or work for more than a few hours so abuses shouldn’t be an issue. It is wholly unfair to have tiered pricing according to how ‘high demand’ an area is. A situation often artificially created by the council deliberately taking out paid parking bays in that area. But this doesn’t stop them selling three times as many permits as there are spaces!
Because that would take sense, which is what every moron working for BHCC lacks
Because that doesn’t make sense and fails to account for supply and demand, and pressures in some areas compared to others.
How does it not make sense Benjamin TM. Are you AI now? Human beings can’t trademark themselves, only objects can.
Because it fails to account for supply, demand, and pressures in some areas compared to others? I literally just explained why.
This situation is crazy. We were told that this parking scheme would not create a cash cow for the council. Thousands of residents are being forced to pay for parking in Hollingdean when they were not before
This scheme is a money making scheme for the council.
I have elderly residents and parents fighting for too few parking spaces.
Someone will be seriously hurt if this continues.
The joke is Residents still can’t park near their properties because most of the area is double yellow lines.
All the things that we stated as problems during consultation period are happening . We know our area BHCC do not and we were ignored.
South Hollingdean suffered this for nearly a decade. There have been many issues, shouting, threats etc over the years and damage to vehicles. Much of this stops over time as people accept the reality of having to drive street after street looking for parking
Unfortunately, Hollingdean didn’t stand together. The resident association didn’t deliver that. One part voted 70% for, the other 70% against. Perhaps together we could have had a light touch scheme? Perhaps even a low-cost one (to fit with the lower average income in the ward). But we didn’t work together. Those unaffected were uninterested. We discussed this nearly a decade ago at the public meeting. Most were against. I asked, if the permits were free, would you want? Virtually all said yes. It has always been about the cost and the council makes over £10m a year from resident parking above costs (they call an excess, we’d call a profit). Theoretically illegal (as only allowed to cover costs over a few years), but that’s how it is.
We created this divide by Hollingdean not acting together. The council gave us many chances – including meetings and a vote for areas less affected (we didn’t get that when the other 3 neighbouring zones we put in). Hopefully, North Hollingdean can come together and request another vote. Meanwhile, it is now possible to park in south Hollingdean in the evening. There are spaces. Long-term non-residents from across the city have moved on. We have to pay for that (too much, greedy council), but it saves so much time, stress and money on fuel driving around finding a space
When BHCC ¹”consulted” the Residents about this sceme after the 1st woefully inadequate survey they decided not to consult the so called North of Hollingdean.
We complained that the whole of Hollingdean should be asked for their opinions.
BHCC split Hollingdean into 2 parts not the Residents.
I have lived in Hollingdean for all of my 60 years a d there has never been A North Hollingdean and South Hollingdean. I live in Hollingdean.
It was a council choice to split the estate into 2 parts.
We warned that this would happen and they ignored us. Ian Beck Secretary Hollingdean Residents Association.
Yes, I don’t like the names north and south Hollingdean either. Especially as there was a recent vote in some parts of Hollingdean above the dip (who voted no by 70%) and no second for others (mainly in the NE of Hollingdean). Those who voted were based on previous votes. The streets closest to the city side of the dip have always voted for a CPZ – over nearly a decade. Their voices were drowned out by the rest of Hollingdean who voted against. Some residents really suffered – especially those on the border who couldn’t park closer than a 5-10 minute walk from their home in the evening. Causing real problems to those with young families, those less active, vulnerable etc. Many felt trapped in their homes in the evening – not going out as couldn’t get parked when they returned
There were numerous meetings with councillors, committees, petitions etc to get a resolution for the roads and the thousands of residents who had always voted for a scheme over many years. Not because they wanted to pay, but because of dangers and issues to them. I think these resident groups persuaded the council to draw boundaries where they are, based on previous votes (rather than the council imposing, as you state). The north/south labels just came later. The boundaries make sense – CPZs have expanded across the city for decades from the centre. This was just the next area – but it suffered for many years more than other areas, eventually surrounded on 3 sides.
The only other thing I would like to add is that people who are unhappy about parking should organise and campaign for a vote. They should not try direct action and vandalise vehicles. This has been tried in Surrenden and there was some in what is now zone 14. The key problem is that it leads to insurance claims which blight a postcode – the one where we live! So we all pay more. Those parking from the rest of the city are under a different postcode – so they’d be OK! The last thing we need is even higher insurance premiums!
Ian you don’t speak for all of ‘north’ Hollingdean. I understand that you represent a group of residents but please don’t pretend to speak for all of us. My road had & still has parking issues as we’re just off the Dip. We’re all surrounded by schemes in other roads. The very first consultation we voted for a scheme but had to wait while they consulted other roads not initially included in the consultation. Two more votes & a lot of interference later & the vote changed. Now the problem is worse than ever. There has been so much arguing & misinformation & the problem just gets worse. I understand that people on low incomes & in homes who have a car park or drive don’t want or can’t afford to pay but many of us do & are sick of the problems. We just want to be able to come & go from our homes like others can. Many of those parking here live on other streets who have a scheme already & who want their extra cars. We need a proper honest discussion and a way to remove the interference from outside our streets to work out what’a best for all of Hollingdean.
Money grabbing scum.
Their anti car apologists are even worse
Why didn’t they bring in the scheme in both areas? That would have solved the problem.
Or just push the problem onto the next area….
Residents in that area had the chance to vote. 70% rejected CPZ. In what is now zone 14, 70% voted for the scheme. There was a very clear difference in the wishes of residents between the two areas
Councils should never have been given these powers, as they simply abuse them at every opportunity for maximum revenue raising and maximum inconvenience and costs to residents