A man has slammed the level of parking enforcement in his street as “totally unacceptable” after wardens failed to visit his half of the road for more than a week.
Chris Roberts, who lives in Bernard Road in the new light touch Zone S, started monitoring how often wardens were coming on his security camera footage.
In March, he contacted the council after no wardens visited for all 10 of the week’s no-parking timeslots, after which the street received three or four visits a week.
But another ten days have just gone past with no visits, from June 22 to the morning of July 2, with a warden finally spotted in the street yesterday afternoon – after he again raised the issue.
Mr Roberts said: “With the huge amount of revenue that parking enforcement is creating for the council surely there is money adequately put aside for enough parking enforcement officers?
“This is totally unacceptable.
“People living in parking zones need to know that light touch means only a rare visit from enforcement.”
However, Brighton and Hove City Council said the road was regularly visited and fluctuations in how often this happened were to keep bad parkers on their toes.
A council spokeswoman said: “Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO’s) have visited Bernard Road on 235 occasions since the scheme went live in October 2017, this is an average of 1 visit per day. 109 Penalty Charge Notices have also been issued.
“Bernard Road is situated in Area S which is a Light Touch parking scheme. Parking is restricted to permit holders only Monday to Friday for two hours in the day, one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon/evening.
“CEO’s do not have set days and times when they have to visit a street, two visits may occur one day and no visits the next.
“Flexible enforcement techniques ensure Light Touch schemes benefit from efficient and effective enforcement compared to single hourly visits which for non-permit holders can become predictable.”
Parking is a problem in Brighton and Hove due to the number of cars used in our limited space.
The way to reduce car use and to help residents find spaces is to have a paid parking permit scheme.
The obvious benefits of that are that the council gains a new income – whilst the residents have more chance of finding a parking space near their home, for an annual fee. Visitors have to pay even more, by using local car parks or by working the confusing meter system.
There’s then the transitionary/change-over period when all the people who expect to park for free in a road get annoyed – or who else readjust their working of the system. Will a parking attendant enforce this new system, or not?
If you live in the road with a new system then the best bet is to buy a permit – if you can afford to. If you don’t live in the road then you have to find somewhere else to park.
The ‘soft touch’ imposed in west Hove has meant that I can no longer meet a good friend at her house for coffee – because the very time I might arrive (at 11am) is when the morning prohibition starts.
That same road has a further restriction between 6pm and 7pm, designed to help car turnover, so that residents arriving home from work can find space to park up overnight, without the non-local freeloaders taking up spaces.
So this week I visit these friends after work, and I’m just there to say hullo and have a cup of tea after 5pm, but 6pm arrives and their new baby kicks off, so I help by entertaining the three year old while they change the new baby’s nappy.
When I leave, half an hour later than planned, at 6.30pm, and I find a parking penalty ticket on my windscreen. This is an expensive babysitting charge.
It’s £35 if I pay it within two weeks or £70 if I try and string out the money or contest the charges. I don’t have £35 share this week, let alone £70. If that’s loose change for you then maybe you won’t care.
In the long term, I adjust my behaviour. In theory, I can still visit my friends, but on foot or on a bicycle. (Or else I have to make new friends.)
Sadly, there is no way around this.
The thing that really annoys me is that there is a parking bay in our road with no signage and so people park there for free, while I pay the annual fee I can’t afford for the same privilege, and I end up parking in the next street, with little chance of unloading my shopping.
If I get annoyed about not being able to park near my house, this is made worse by the locals and visitors who park half way into the available spaces – their wheels several yards from the ends of the bay markings, effectively reducing the number of spaces available.
You can see why people get angry. We get angry with the random traffic wardens who are on targets in collecting fines rather than managing parking. We hate the mixed-payment parking machines which often don’t work. We get angry with the council for changing our world, and we get angry with our neighbours for stealing our spaces, so the community vibe gets a kicking.
But does anyone have a better, long-term solution?
I think people who don’t move up to the end of the parking bay should be fined for their lack of consideration to others who wish to park. I see it everywhere. I live on a hill so there are steps on both sides of the road but parking is only on one side. If people parked by the steps and not half a car length from them then the middle sorts it’s self out and it also stops people squeezing in across the steps.