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Search forProtest over Bristol parking zones
Thursday, November 20, 2008, 07:40
The outcome of 53,000 questionnaires sent to households across the city are due to be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the sustainable development and transport scrutiny commission at 6pm at Council House.
The campaign group Keep Parking Free wants residents to show just how many people object to the idea, as the council plans to push ahead with two pilot schemes in Kingsdown and Brandon Hill, Clifton.
Of 72 neighbourhood areas consulted, there were only six where more than 50 per cent people said they wanted the scheme.
All six are around the existing Controlled Parking Zone in the centre of the city, fuelling fears that imposing parking schemes in one area simply pushes the problem elsewhere, the group claims.
Only 25 per cent of the forms were returned, around 13,000 households, but the council still wants to push ahead with the two pilots.
Set-up costs for the two pilots are around £1.2 million, which will be recouped over 10 years.
Eight out of 10 people surveyed said they were not happy to pay for the scheme, and opponents claim it is just a way to make money.
In response to this, the council has again dropped the cost of the permits, so it will now cost £30 for one vehicle, £110 for two and £310 for three.
Costs will be held for three years and then increased to cover inflation.
The first permit will be free for the lowest polluting vehicles and electric vehicles.
Each zone would contain a minimum of 1,000 households, and each will be able to have up to 100 visitors passes, the first 50 are free and then they cost £1 each.
Parking in pay and display bays will be free for the first 15 minutes and then £1 an hour.
Members of Keep Parking Free plan to ask up to 30 questions to get their point across.
They have described the pilot schemes as "the thin end of the wedge".
One of the organisers Bernard Cooke said: "There were 65 tick boxes on the consultation form. Why is this meeting being provided with so little information? What is the council trying to hide?"
"We don't know how many people responded in the areas targeted for pilots, for example.
"The council could, for all we know, be planning to spend over £1m on the basis of just a couple of hundred responses. Where is the information?
"The meeting is open to the public, and we would like as many people as possible to attend."
The group also said the areas targeted for pilot schemes are inhabited by large numbers of university students and staff, and that to rely on the results of a consultation carried out entirely during the summer vacation would be "preposterous".
Among the questions tabled for the meeting include asking why the council is pushing ahead with pilot schemes when most parts of the city surveyed said they don't want the scheme.
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