East Brighton Park parking consultation
People are being encouraged to give their views on a new parking scheme proposed for East Brighton Park, to prevent the park being used for long stay parking by commuters, residents and others.
The move by Brighton & Hove City Council follows concern about parked vehicles causing access problems - particularly for ambulances picking up patients from the air ambulance helicopter, which uses the park as a landing area for the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Sports players, other park users, and visitors trying to reach the Brighton Caravan Club site in adjoining Sheepcote Valley, have also expressed concern about the volume of traffic parking on the access road through the park.
Public consultation on the scheme opens today on Wednesday February 19 and runs to March 19. People can give their views via the council’s website www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/EBP-parkingsurvey.
Letters about the proposals are being sent out to residents living nearby in Wilson Avenue, a display will be on show in the café in the park (open Wednesdays and weekends), and in the foyer of Asda at Brighton Marina from March 10 to 13.
Because there are currently no controls on parking, the road which runs through the park, serving the caravan site, the park's Pavilion Cafe, Whitehawk Football Club, and Brighton College is widely used by drivers who are not actually visiting the park, causing congestion and spoiling the appearance of the park. The consultation will also ask residents views on restricting parking along Wilson Avenue to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers.
At a meeting of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee in January councillors agreed to go ahead with consultation with park users and other interested parties on implementing a controlled parking scheme to tackle the problems (see link to committee report under further information). Feedback from public consultation will be reported back to the committee, together with any recommendations based on the outcome of the consultation.
Proposed parking charges to cover the cost of enforcing the scheme will be kept to a minimum (see details below). Any surplus will be ring-fenced to improvements to the park.
Councillor Pete West, chair of the committee, said: "We have had a lot of complaints about problems being caused by long stay parking in the park and we are particularly concerned about the risk of delays for ambulances needing to transfer seriously ill patients from the air ambulance.
“There are also access problems for visitors going to the caravan site, to the extent we are told it is deterring some people from returning to the site and going outside of Brighton & Hove for their next break.
“We want to tackle these problems and free up parking spaces for park users and we hope everyone interested will give us their view on the proposed parking scheme."
He added: "We have tried to keep the proposed parking charges low for genuine park users and the basic charge will be 50p for an hour's parking. This will pay for enforcing the scheme and any excess income generated will be ploughed back into improving the park."
*Proposed parking charges within East Brighton Park are as follows, charges would apply from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 2pm to 6pm Saturday and Sunday. The maximum length of stay would be six hours:
Up to 1 hour 50p
Up to 2 hours £1
Up to 4 hours £2
Up to 6 hours £3
Disabled parking free
ENDS
Further information:
Read the reports for the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee here: http://democracy.brighton-hove.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=823&MId=4790 . The report about parking in East Brighton Park is agenda item number 74.