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restrictions were outdated and insufficient thought had been given to any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 20th 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 3rd to June 10th. 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.