Consultation begins on Residents' Parking Scheme

Release Date:  24-Jun-2008

Residents and business across Bristol are to be asked for their views on proposals for a new Residents' Parking Scheme for the city.

Consultation gets underway this week with questionnaires posted to around 53,000 addresses in Bristol.

The new scheme would see a major shake-up in parking in the city to tackle congestion, support local businesses and encourage the use of public transport and park & ride services.

The initial consultation is asking residents whether they are interested in their street becoming one of the pilot areas within the scheme.

The key reasons why the council is planning to introduce the scheme in specific areas around the city are:

• To encourage commuters from outside Bristol to use other forms of transport, such as park & ride, thereby reducing congestion on the city's roads
• Because the council is receiving an increasing number of requests for residents' parking due to pressures on parking spaces in the city
• To improve access for emergency vehicles
• Because existing and new major development and continued growth will continue to put pressure on the limited parking space available in Bristol
• To improve road safety at junctions and by removing obstructions for pedestrians

The Residents' Parking Scheme will comprise a series of Residents' Parking Zones. A 'Zone' identifies a group of streets within which a permit will enable the resident to park. The number of streets will vary, but each Zone is likely to contain 300 to 500 households.

Councillor Mark Bradshaw, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: “This ambitious scheme will make it easier for motorists living near to the centre of our city to park nearer their homes, while improving road safety and removing obstructions from the roads which can cause serious delays for emergency vehicles.

“I'm confident that the scheme will also help deter commuters from parking all day in residential streets and encourage more people to use public transport and park and ride services to reach the city centre.

“Across the city residents have been expressing interest in their area becoming part of a parking scheme - we are listening and acting on their concerns about the parking situation in Bristol. As a major city we need to have a more effective means of managing our limited on-street parking space, in a way other towns and cities have done for some time.

“This is not a money-making exercise. All of the money collected from the sale of permits will be used to administer, maintain and enforce the scheme.

“This is an initial consultation exercise to assess interest and find out more about specific local parking problems as no two areas will be the same. More detailed consultation will follow before any local scheme is implemented.”

A permit will cost £40 a year, although a discount system will be drawn up to assist low income households. The first permit would be free of charge for the lowest polluting vehicles (those in Band A, as defined for road tax purposes). Where second permits are available they will cost £80 a year. In exceptional circumstances it might be possible to purchase a third permit but this will cost £500 a year.

The consultation questionnaires need to be returned by August 1 2008.  All of the responses will then be collated and areas where there is a significant interest in the scheme will be prioritised for pilot Zones.

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