Friday, September 28, 2007

Parking

Pretty yellow signs in York Street and Bridge Street; no not about the forthcoming roadworks don't be silly, this is to warn people about these parking attendants that are/will be operating in the area. I can understand the deterrent factor, after all that's what it should all be about, but isn't the contra view that anywhere without these signs should be posting "You can park here illegally with only a low chance of getting fined" signs?

Something I've mentioned about attacking symptoms and not causes, in this case why do people park illegally in Stourport? Because the car-parks are some distance (i.e. walking) from the town and the minimum charge is for an hour, if I'm just going to pick up a paper or withdraw some money (something that should be quick, but often isnt') I'm not going to all the hassle to drive to the car-park, dig out exact money (because they don't give change), walk to the store, make my purchase, then walk back. Doing all that will take say ten minutes, parking illegally directly in front of the store and popping in - five or less.

We do have parking bays in High Street if I recall correctly they're hour-stay onlys, but are they monitored? We have the free car-park in Vale Road, but you need to both cross the three-lane road then face a shortish walk to get into town; there's the pay car-parks next to the Civic Centre (including Raven Street), but as I've said minimum's an hour.

So how about setting aside part of the main Civic Centre car-park as a short stop 15 minutes for 20p no return within an hour - just as an experiment? Hell make it free, just make sure it's monitored.

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