Cumbria council may charge drivers who live in disc-parking zones
Last updated at 11:58, Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Drivers who live in disc-parking zones in Cumbria may have to pay for their annual parking permits.
The county council is floating the idea as a way of raising cash to help offset expected cuts in government grant.
It has already toyed with the idea of rationing permits in areas of high demand and charging households who need more than one.
But minutes of a highways and transport working group reveal it is now considering charges for all permits.
Richard Hayward, the council’s area engineer for Carlisle, is quoted as saying that charges are the only way to cover the costs of providing traffic wardens.
There is no indication as to what the charge would be.
Councillor Tony Markley, the cabinet member responsible for highways, told the News & Star: “I don’t like to think we should charge anybody for parking outside their home. But we might have to do that because of the funding constraints we’re under.”
A report on on-street parking is due to go to the council’s cabinet later this year.
The authority has pledged to consult the public before charges are introduced.
At present, motorists who live in disc zones can get free permits to park all day for any vehicle they own.
Proposals tabled last year would have rationed free permits to one per household. Extra permits, charged at £10, would be issued only where officials judged there was “spare capacity”.
Those plans were not taken any further amid fears they might create a black market where non drivers would sell their permits to desperate car-owning neighbours.
Councillors also shelved proposals for parking meters in town and city centres.
In Carlisle alone, more than 4,800 households have residents’ parking permits and 3,900 have more than one.
District councils such as Carlisle and Allerdale are responsible for enforcing on-street parking restrictions on behalf of the county council.
But falling revenue from fixed-penalty fines means the service runs at a loss.
To reduce costs, Carlisle City Council is arguing that it could provide a county-wide service instead of having separate teams of wardens in each of the six districts.
First published at 11:24, Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
Anon on 23 July 2010 at 09:46, you object to works vans being parked in residential streets, but what about company cars? They are doing much the same thing.
Re the guy parking across peoples drives, I have an idiot near me who did much the same thing, parking so close to vehicles so they had to ask his 'permission' to get out, or across driveways etc, but what I did was report him. That stopped his pathetic ways. Blocking your drive is illegal.
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This just goes too far!! We pay road tax and council tax in order to live where we live and drive our cars, now we have to pay to park thenm at home as well? Are you having a laugh? Has April fool been brought forward? Don't the car park charges, fines and 'machine overcharges' pay for the wardens? Stealth tax all the way, that's what this is. Go on CCC, squeeze a little more out of us, treat yourselves. Until the long standing issue at Alexander street is solved (which you seem to be struggling with despite evidence) you will struggle to get any money from the residents here. I'll be a martyr no problem.
Posted by VERY annoyed!! on 26 July 2010 at 20:45