East Brighton Park parking scheme

Proposals for a new parking scheme for East Brighton Park will be considered by members of Brighton & Hove City Council's Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee at a meeting later this month (April 29).

The aim is to prevent the park being used for long stay parking by commuters, residents and others, and 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.

Visitors trying to reach the Brighton Caravan Club site in adjoining Sheepcote Valley, which is served by the access road through the park, have also had problems with access.

Public consultation on the parking scheme was carried out in February and March. A report to the committee says that of the 189 people who responded to the consultation, 89% agreed with proposals to control parking in East Brighton Park, and 84% agreed with controls along nearby Wilson Avenue.

There was also strong support (88%) for any surplus income generated from parking charges to be spent on improvements to the park.

As a result the committee is being recommended to give the go ahead to parking controls in the park and Wilson Avenue, subject to the statutory consultation process for Traffic Regulation Orders.

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. 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 surplus income generated will be ploughed back into improving the park."

Currently 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.

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, with park users consulted on how any money is spent:

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

See committee report for more details: http://democracy.brighton-hove.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=823&MId=4792&Ver=4