Action on Parking Problems

11.40.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 1st Oct 2007

Lib Dem councillors have asked the Local Committee to re-visit parking problems for local residents in and around Epsom town centre.

The Local Committee, the highway authority, is made up of County and Borough Councillors and is funded by the County Council. Parking problems in areas such as Rosebank, Hereford Close and Downs Hill Road are now so serious that the whole question of residents parking needs discussing and the Chairman of the Local Committee has been asked to place the subject on the agenda of a future meeting. The Liberal Democrats have always supported a residents' parking scheme, but only in those roads where residents are in favour of it.

The last attempt to deal with parking problems for those living in and around Epsom was in 2002 when the controversial Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) was thrown out by the Borough Council. A list of roads which supported the introduction of a residents' parking scheme at that time has been submitted to the Chairman, along with the names of those roads where there was little difference between the numbers of residents who supported the plans and the numbers who did not. Lib Dem councillors believe that the situation has deteriorated since 2002 and that the Local Committee's strategy - the piecemeal laying of yellow lines - is not a satisfactory method of dealing with parking problems in the longer term. They are also aware that the number of wardens employed by the Borough Council is inadequate to deal with yellow line infringement. Cllr Julie Morris believes that commuter parking is now out of control and she and her colleagues are frustrated by their inability to deal with obstructive, illegal and pavement parking. Cty Cllr Colin Taylor and Cllr Nigel Pavey are your representatives on the Local Committee.