Rye Town Clerk Richard Farhall has been pleading with the government on behalf of Rye:
To The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Transport, Great Minster House,
33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR:
Dear Mr Shapps,
Your Department is considering currently the preparation of a Bill to transfer parking enforcement powers from Sussex Police to East Sussex County Council. The Rother District includes Rye, a small market town with a high degree of dependence on its visitor economy.
The current Traffic Regulation Order in Rye’s town centre provides for drivers to park for an hour before having to vacate the bay (with no return within 2 hours).
During East Sussex County Council’s Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) consultation process – along with Rye & District Chamber of Commerce – Rye Town Council (which is not opposed to CPE in principle) argued consistently that removing one hour of free parking would be detrimental to the local economy.
The Civil Parking Enforcement scheme operated by Ashford Borough Council in Tenterden (considered to be Rye’s nearest ‘competitor town’) provides for this – and now we have the added challenge of post COVID-19 economic recovery to factor in.
Removal of the one hour of free parking provision can only have an adverse impact on Rye’s local economy and Rye Town Council requests that you consider asking East Sussex County Council to reconsider this element of its proposed scheme – ie to reinstate one hour of free parking at the start of each day.
Yours sincerely, Richard Farhall, Town Clerk, Rye Town Council
Source: Rye Town Council
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Hope it comes in soon perhaps that it will stop cars parking all day and builders van taking all the places for days
It has become very obvious for the last several years that people have been taking advantage of the lack of parking enforcement in Rye town centre. For example, in Market Street at weekends the same vehicles, not all of them cars, have been parking continually from before 08.30 to after 17.00 thereby occupying parking spaces that would otherwise be available for shoppers.
The proposed new scheme, especially as suggested by Rye Town council with one hour of free parking but not just at the start of the day, will be beneficial BUT only if there is sufficient enforcement to ensure that it is working for the benefit of everybody.
The selfishness of some drivers has just been perfectly demonstrated. 0915, Saturday. After parking up on the double yellow lines at the top of Hilders Cliff, such that any large vehicle would have difficulty making the right turn in to the High Street, the driver informed me “I run a business here” and walked off. Same cars day in day out in all the same places. It is no wonder no-one can ever park. Sadly many shopkeepers are totally oblivious to the connection between availability of parking and their own takings, Covid or no Covid. Traffic enforcement cannot come soon enough.