Rye Town Council met this week with a new mayor and two new co-opted members to decide its priorities and the membership of various committees, working groups and external bodies – and one “hot potato” in the pile was the group reviewing local parking arrangements.
Ticket machines and traffic wardens are relatively new – and may have been required less during Covid lockdowns – but part of the package when they were introduced was that the arrangements would be reviewed – to see what worked, what did not, and what else might be needed.
However Rother District Council, which should be taking a lead on this, appear to be silent on the issue.
And, in the meantime, free parking spots have been grabbed all over Rye, with some hot spots in particular – and there may be others not mentioned below.
Two hot spots
One is Military Road (see photo above) which nearly ground to a halt when “works” and holes in the road were added to thoughtless parking.
Another appears to be Udimore Road where incoming traffic to Rye has to get out of the way of traffic coming up the hill, can finding it extremely difficult to find a space between parked vehicles to get out of the way.
Tilling Green has had many cars parked for a long time whose owners did not live there and the former school’s use as a vaccination centre has highlighted some of those problems. Valley Park too is starting to fill up with cars belonging to people who do not live there as well.
And anyone who has travelled around Rye and surrounding villages in the community bus will be aware of the problems thoughtless parking can cause.
Rye councillors who wanted to be on this particular working group may therefore be kept busy, but their first problem will be to get Rother District Council moving on the issue.
Image Credits: Rye News library .
Once again the inconsiderate parking from some rears its ugly head again in the town, permit parking needs to be introduced throughout Rye for locals who find they cannot park outside their own homes,because of others trying to find a free car parking place, and permanently parking outside their homes.At say a £100 per year would be reasonable to most households, would help put a stop to this free for all,who have no consideration for others.
A permit for Gibbet Marsh is £323 per year, not exactly cheap and why residents avoid it by parking wherever they can particularly now as the cost of living is crippling some families.
Interestingly, residents in Church Square only pay £25 a year for on street parking.
Civil Parking Enforcement in Rye and all of Rother is administered by the County Council. Rother District Council was merely a consultee in the very early stages. Any worries should be directed at the County Council either directly or via Rye’s County Councillor.
I am curious to know why cars are allowed to park on the Rye Cricket Club pitch when invariably there’s an empty car park right in front of it? I also notice cars have taken to parking on the grass at Gibbets Marsh when there’s a perfectly good car park there. Don’t the car owners in Rye get given free ‘residents parking’ for the road in which they live?