It’s so much easier to do nothing

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Last Monday, September 5, the subject of parking came up again at the first full meeting of Rye Town Council (RTC) following the summer recess.

One had hoped, although without much optimism, that following their abysmal performance on the last occasion this subject was discussed, some thought would have been given to the matter and a positive debate would now take place. However, contrary to optimism but absolutely in line with expectations, nothing of the sort happened. The usual platitudes were given by County Councillor Keith Glazier – “there was a will for a solution . . . discussions were taking place between Rother and Wealden . . . there will be setting up costs  . . . etc” but no sign of any real action nor, it would seem, from the reports, was there any demand for action from RTC.

In my interview with Rother District Council chairman Paul Osborne a few weeks ago, we discussed this and he said that once a decision had been reached, the time scale before it would be implemented would be around two years. So even if we were on the verge of a way ahead now (which we are clearly not) it would be late 2018 before the town would see the result.

However, putting anger and frustration aside, maybe this is no bad thing. Because parking is really just a symptom of the real problem, and this is traffic and the sheer quantity of it that the town has to deal with on a daily basis. A variety of solutions have been suggested in this paper from time to time both by us and by our readers. So maybe this would be an opportunity to take a holistic approach to the whole problem of road use throughout the town.

For example, I suggested at a recent meeting with Rye MP Amber Rudd (and at which RDC councillor Lord Ampthill was also present) that parking in the citadel area might be restricted to residents only. The answer, which I have heard before, is that it wouldn’t work because there are more residents cars’ than parking spaces. Are there? This might be the case, but has anyone done a survey to find out? You could not, I was told ask people to pay for a permit without guaranteeing them a space. Why not? this is the case in almost every city in the UK that operates residents’ parking, and if only residents were parking there they would have a much better opportunity of finding a space than when they have to compete with visitors, tradesmen, local workers etc.

And suppose this was combined with, as one of our readers suggested, a congestion charge for every vehicle coming through the Landgate into the High Street. The charge would be modest (and not applied to those with residents permits) but calculated to be more than the cost of using a car park and stopping time in the High Street would be strictly limited (say, 30 minutes max between 9am and 6pm). Of course car parking capacity elsewhere would need to be increased and perhaps a park and ride service introduced for car parks the other side of the river or the railway crossing. Add to this restrictions on deliveries to commercial premises (this is done elsewhere) to before 9:30am or after 4:30pm and, at a stroke, there is reduced traffic in that part of the town not designed for it, parking is controlled and largely confined to affordable car parks, hold-ups and roadblocks caused by large delivery vans are virtually eliminated and the town centre will become a much more pleasant place for all who use it. Because of this, High Street traders are also likely to feel the benefit.

These are just a few ideas bashed out on a keyboard and some or all may not, for various reasons, be practical but, please, let us not go down the route of thinking that there is only one solution to all this – employing a parking warden – we must be more imaginative. We have a potential opportunity here to change Rye for the better and to equip this ancient town to deal more effectively with the 21st century, let’s not waste that opportunity because it is easier to sit on our hands and do nothing.

Photo: Rye News Library

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