CRAP & Facebook

Oh dear, I’m new to Facebook and have never really seen the point of joining until being told about the campaign being run by ‘Keep Hay Free’ against Residents’ Parking Permits being introduced in Hay.

I've therefore joined Facebook and hope I've managed to dowload this statement there.  It's probably far too long, but please bear with me and if you can be bothered, hopefully you will see the full story of CRAP’s campaign

First let me say that I started the Campaign for a Realistic Approach to Parking (CRAP) and yes I am a recent resident of Hay, having lived here only four years, and no, I don’t own a business here.   So far so good, but just to get some facts straight –

I started CRAP as a reaction to Powys County Council plans to take over Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) in April 2011.  Up to then, Dyfed Powys Police had responsibility for CPE in Hay; we had one Traffic Warden and things got along pretty well.  Everyone knew where to park, there was little friction and parking rules, although on the face of it very restrictive, were enforced with common sense.  In other words, although an imperfect system, it worked!

In April 2011, we were faced with a very different situation, Powys took over responsibility for enforcing parking restrictions throughout the county, appointed eight new Traffic Wardens (Civil Enforcement Officers) to police the system – and all hell broke loose!  Parking Tickets were issued like confetti and I believe it true to say that most people in Hay, residents, traders and visitors were very unhappy with the new enforcement regime.

From April 2011, CRAP has campaigned to promote a sensible and realistic alternative to the new situation.   We believed the existing parking restrictions were outdated and insufficient thought had been given to any provision being made for residents’ parking in the town.  The Powys County Council ‘Prohibition and Restriction of Waiting and Loading and Parking Spaces, Civil Enforcement and Consolidation Order 2011’ to give it it’s full and glorious title, with which Powys assumed Civil Parking Enforcement, made provisions for Residents Permits and other Parking Dispensations but no effort was made to introduce them. 

CRAP believed that there was no going back to the old laissez faire system and we were stuck with Powys running CPE for the foreseeable future, the only sensible way forward was to try to persuade the county to update its parking regulations, back off from its draconian enforcement of town centre parking restrictions which we believed was damaging local businesses and make some provision for local residents’ parking.

We felt it was important not to impose our ideas without consultation with the local community.  CRAP held several local meetings, distributed questionnaires, contacted our local council, our MP and AM and kept the local press informed of our campaign.  We started a blog, CRAP-Powys.blogspot.com and started to lobby Powys County Council to look at Parking in Hay as an urgent priority.

After local discussions, we developed a suggested parking plan for Hay which proposed the town be divided into three areas.  First, a Green Zone, was to be the main retail commercial area of the town centre where we proposed there was to be no residents’ parking, leaving the area for visitors and shoppers who would be able to park for various limited periods.  Second, a Red Zone, the streets adjacent to the main retail area bounded more or less by Heol-y-Dwr, Oxford Road, Church Street and Broad Street.  This area was to have mixed parking, allowing visitors to park for one or two hours but permitting residents with valid Residents Parking Permits (RPPs) unrestricted parking.  Zone three was everywhere else, where no changes were proposed.   We also made one or two additional suggestions.  (Full details of our scheme, and maps, can be seen on our 20^th February 2013 post in our blog CRAP-Powys-blogspot.com)

No proposed scheme can ever be perfect, but we had developed a scheme which the majority of people consulted, seemed to think would work.  Certainly it enjoyed the support of the Town Council, Gareth Ratcliffe our County Councillor and I believe, Hay Chamber of Trade.   We didn’t think the scheme would be adopted without change, but thought it would be a good starting point.  An important element of our campaign was to open the town centre cattle market to mixed residents’ and paid visitors’ parking on days it wasn’t being used.

We believe that in an ideal world, there would be no charge for visitors’ parking as an encouragement to local trade and made every attempt to ensure our proposals would not provide residents’ parking at the expense of the livelihoods of local shops and businesses.  We know that Powys, along with other local councils, was strapped for cash and that income from parking is important, if only to pay for CPE enforcement.  (Despite a Freedom of Information request, we have never been able to find out the full costs of Powys assuming responsibility for CPE!)  CRAP therefore believed the best way to secure council support for Residents’ Parking was to allow that there would be a charge made for permits.  Our original suggestion was £25 per permit but we finally opted for £52 per annum, i.e. £1 per week.  We also suggested there should be a limit on two permits per residence within the Red and Green Zones in Hay.

Our campaign continued and created some considerable stir, locally, nationally and unbelievably, even internationally; our blog attracting visitors from over thirty countries.   Unfortunately Powys seemed unable or unwilling to look at the problems we faced in Hay and we seemed to be getting nowhere.

In May 2012, Local elections brought in a new Hay Town Council and a new Powys County Council administration.  We had lobbied all County Council candidates prior to the elections and received support from many but by no means all, for our campaign.  Again, results can be seen on our blog.

The new Powys administration were much more supportive of our campaign and to cut a very long story short, thanks very largely to the hard work and support of Councillor Gareth Ratcliffe, finally agreed to introduce Residents’ Parking and eventually, to run a trial scheme in Hay, as we had “done so much preliminary work”.   If successful, the scheme would be expanded to other towns within Powys.

At a meeting in September 2012 with Powys County Council officers in County Hall, Landrindod Wells, attended by Gareth Ratcliffe and representatives of Hay Town council, we presented the CRAP proposals and received the promise that these would be taken into account when final proposals were drawn up.

In May this year, we received notice that Powys had at last developed their proposals for Residents’ Parking in Hay and proposed to hold a public “exhibition of options for a Residents Parking Scheme for Hay-on-Wye” in Hay Library starting from June 3^rd to June 10^th.  We were horrified by the lack of publicity for the exhibition and the fact that it was to open the day after the Hay Literary Festival closed.  We were also very unhappy with Powys’ proposals which we believed offered no promised “options” but rather promoted only their plan which recommended a divisive and unworkable system that we believed was a. impractical, b. unlikely to enjoy the support of the local community and c. would end up with Hay voting for only partial adoption.

We believed adoption of this plan was the worst possible outcome and would result in us losing the opportunity to establish a workable scheme for the town.  I reiterate that CRAP has never felt our scheme would be adopted in total, but we had hoped some elements of it would be incorporated in the Powys plan.

What then are the differences?

Both Powys and CRAP are aware that there are too few parking spaces for the likely demand and neither scheme can guarantee parking to every holder of a Residents Parking Permit.

The Powys Plan calls for all existing Residents Parking Zones (RPZs) in Central Hay-on-Wye (current 1 and 2 hour RPZs) to be shared Visitors’ and Residents’ Parking except Bear Street which it is proposed will be Residents Only.

CRAP proposes the same except that Bear Street will also be a shared use RPZ.  It also believes that all Council adopted road within central Hay should be part of the scheme.

The Powys Plan allows only residents living adjacent to designated streets (Street Zone Scheme) to qualify to apply for Residents Parking Permits (RPPs)

CRAP’s want all residents living in the central town area (Whole Town Scheme) to be able to qualify for Residents’ Parking Permits.

Powys wants to limit Residents to park only in the street adjacent to their home and not in any other residents parking zone.  If residents can’t park in their Street Zone, they can only park in the Car Park or an out of town unrestricted area.

CRAP believes that owners of RPPs should be able to park in any shared use RPZ in the town centre area.  If residents can’t park in their own street, they can park in any other town centre shared RPZ, in the Car Park or in an out of town unrestricted area

Powys believes that RPPs should be limited to one per qualifying household in any Street Zone.

CRAP believes that two RPPs should be available to any household in the central area.

Powys calls for Residents Parking Permits to cost £65 per annum (£1.25 per week)

CRAP suggests that Residents Parking Permits should cost £52 per annum (£1.00 per week)

The Powys Plan calls for the five parking spaces in Bell Bank to be shared use RPZs.

CRAP believes these spaces are important to town commerce and should not be available for Residents Parking

The Powys plan calls for a 51% of all residents in individual Street Zones, whether or not they already have private parking, to support the plan to adopt the plan for that Street Zone.

CRAP believes that a vote should include all residents of the town centre area, excepting those who already enjoy private off street parking.

There are of course other differences, but in essence CRAP believes (I believe) that the only way to ensure that we can adopt a sensible Residents Parking Scheme which supports local businesses yet allows town centre residents a reasonable opportunity to park somewhere near their homes rather than in an unprotected car park or out of town, (where recent thefts and vandalism have shown cars can be at risk) is to adopt a Whole Town scheme, making parking available to all town centre residents, rather than the proposed Street Zone system which allows parking only to a limited number of residents.

We believe that to do nothing is not a realistic option.  Whether we like it or not, Powys County Council has responsibility for Civil Parking Enforcement.  Currently, they have backed off from enforcing parking restrictions as fully as they might, if no new system is embraced then the existing restrictions will be fully enforced and we shall have got nowhere.  Proposed shared use RPZs will be timed zone RPZs and no residents’ parking will be permitted.   Most of Lion Street , Church Street and Heol-y-Dwr currently enjoy no parking restrictions, Booth Gardens displays unauthorised (and illegal) signs and there are a few anomalous unrestricted parking areas in the town.  If Powys start to enforce existing parking restrictions, (or the currently proposed Powys Street Zone system is only partially adopted) these outside areas will come under increasing pressure from both displaced residents as well as people working locally and visitors, to the detriment of local residents.

The Powys proposals are being promoted as a trial, and truth to tell if the proposed system is introduced, it will probably fail and an opportunity lost – again!   We believe if a trial is to be started, it should be a trial of a system that stands at least some chance of working, for the benefit of the majority of the town, residents and traders.

These then are the choices.  If you think I have misrepresented the situation or you have any preference or hold an opinion about any of our or Powys’ proposals, then let us, Powys, or Gareth Ratcliffe know – before it’s too late and the proposed trial starts.