On Friday afternoon last week, OnTheWight published the scale of public objection to the Isle of Wight council’s proposed changes to parking.
The council made a decision to only accept 543 of the responses they received as ‘valid objections’.
Below is the list of the responses that members of the public sent in to the council that officers chose to treat as ‘Comments’ and therefore, to their minds, fell outside the ‘valid objections’ category.
| Shanklin | Extending charges to 8pm. |
| Effect on evening trade – restaurants, theatre, tourism | |
| Shanklin United Reform Church – will rip heart out of Shanklin community | |
| Why is Sandown High Street one hour free and Regent Street only 30 minutes? (Regent Cards) | |
| The Heights | Extending time to 8pm. |
| Paying for hour’s parking when attending GP surgery | |
| Carry out Health Impact Assessment | |
| IW Marlins extending time will hit their members | |
| IW Heart Care Club on behalf of their members | |
| Medina Campus | Why should staff have to pay to park at place of work |
| Stress for parents who will have to pay | |
| Affect on after-school clubs and parents evenings | |
| Don’t use this revenue to cover costs of Cowes Enterprise College | |
| Only 61 spaces for staff | |
| Added financial burden on governors | |
| Carry out Health Impact Assessment | |
| To charge people working at a school to park during their working day is unacceptable and will not be accepted by anyone in the education sector | |
| Medina College has had a hard time in recent years and is working to improve. How can you possibly justify these charges while the school is trying to work on these improvements? | |
| Seaclose swimming club member – will cost extra £250 pa if I have to pay to park | |
| IW Marlins extending time will hit their members | |
| Newport | Extending charges to 8pm |
| Two hour limit on Quay Street | |
| Tourist permit very complicated – let hotels have paper permits again | |
| Evening charges will turn Newport into ghost town | |
| Counter-productive to remove free Wednesday afternoon parking | |
| Unreasonable to expect people to pay outside their own homes between 6 and 8pm | |
| Will drive existing business away | |
| Extended time will affect Apollo Theatre | |
| Carisbrooke | Why aren’t residents entitled to £50 permit like other areas |
| Village will die and businesses will close | |
| Car park given free to local community due to lack of parking spaces | |
| No on-road parking for residents and workers | |
| Put meters in Union Street (Ryde) | |
| Make first four hours free and allow those who work in the village to park free | |
| Will lead to unauthorised use of Eight Bells and GP surgery car parks and encourage on-street on Spring Lane and Castle Hill. |
|
| Brighstone car park is free – this village is similar so make our car park free | |
| It will affect the church congregation, Brownies, WI | |
| Lack of alternative parking places | |
| Why charge worshippers to park on what was once their church land? | |
| Why should Niton have two free car parks and charge for the only one in Carisbrooke. Will turn Castle Street into rat run with people looking for parking spaces | |
| Detailed concerns from Cllr Hobart | |
| Carisbrooke PCC against charges. Land given for community not envisaged that those wishing to attend events/support local business would have to pay for parking. | |
| Carisbrooke WI | |
| Rev Bagg, Vicar of Carisbrooke. Wedding and funeral services regularly last more than an hour. Number of vehicles regularly outstay limited time or park illegally in disabled bays – send CEOs to ticket more often | |
| Could free period be extended to two hours at least on Sundays when people go to church by car | |
| Sunbeam Pre-School. Difficulties for [low paid] staff. Could the three parking spaces between the back of the hall and the ladies topilets be allocated to the church and church hall when these venues are being used. Allow my staff to purchase residents permits for £150 | |
| Ryde | Extending charges to 8pm will mean I have to pay when going to ice hockey |
| Keep parking free from 6pm | |
| Waterside Pool trustee : Bring Ryde North Walk and esplanade into line with other areas – not all year round but March to October only. Charges after 6pm will affect their customers. Above inflation rise encourages people to park in nearby residential streets | |
| Many members of the IW Underwater Hockey club objecting to extending time to 8pm | |
| IW junior ice hockey club. Dispensation for club members during training? | |
| Appley and Puckpool | Do not charge all year round. |
| Keep free parking at existing free car parks | |
| No transport links near (Dell Café) | |
| Puckpool Park given to people of Ryde for recreation and leisure | |
| Will affect volunteers at Ryde Rowing Club. Make two free spaces available for their bar staff – as done for Appley Café. Bring in subsidised permit for RRC members for Appley car park only. (See example for Southampton rowing clubs.) | |
| Drive traffic to out of town shopping centres (Tesco, Gunwharf) | |
| Make first two hours free and retain 8pm extension | |
| Allocate spaces in middle of Appley Lane to Ryde RC | |
| Develop grassed area behind rowing club and pumping station into private car park for RRC | |
| Private land donated to the council and must be kept free for the public in perpetuity | |
| Customers won’t be able to afford to pay to park and also use cafes on seafront | |
| Beach hut owners already pay high fee for their huts | |
| In-depth email from concessionaire of Puckpool Tea Gardens | |
| Bring in permit for specific car parks such as Appley and Puckpool payable in instalments | |
| Puckpool isn’t a town park people can walk to. Will affect social side of meeting regular users and time with grandchildren. | |
| Moa Place | Don’t persecute the sick, frail and elderly who aren’t able to walk to the surgery |
| Will deter tourists from doing their shopping locally | |
| Half hour free used by patients | |
| Why should I pay to see my doctor? | |
| My child swims regularly at WWSC and it’s disgraceful to charge to park on top of costs of driving from Cowes. Plus several other parents on same lines | |
| Freshwater PC: Difficult to accept increased charges will generate predicted income. Removal of free half hour will have detrimental affect on local business and people using Brookside health centre. Lower part of car park given to local authority for the benefit of inhabitants of Freshwater. Proposed charges too high. | |
| Blackgang Chine | Put a sign at ferry terminals – Tourist (sic) go home |
| Why pay for a car park which has no services, surface markings or lighting | |
| Just been awarded the concession to operate mobile food outlet there | |
| Already costs a large amount to bring your car here as a holidaymaker, I object to paying for parking as well | |
| Inappropriate for this tourist area and viewpoint car park | |
| When this was considered for sale to Vectis Ventures it was stipulated this car park must remain free | |
| Chale PC. IWC property disposal sub committed 10.12.13, included a copndtiion that the car park must remain free and question how the importance of this condition can be overturned in five months | |
| Seaview | Wight Locations and other Seaview businesses – Charges will hasten demise of Seaview as a commercial centre |
| Nettlestone and Seaview PC. Two hours (with ticket) for both Pier Road and Puckpool. Parish council would also like to see arrangements at Duver Road car park brought into line with the arrangements for the other two car parks within the parish | |
| Totland | Totland PC: PC asks for Broadway to remain free car park to aid local businesses. Change to no overnight parking. Would like details of justification for this and forecast of income |
| Wootton | New medical centre being built next to community centre – 3,000+ patients all of whom will have to pay as first hour free won’t be sufficient |
| Brannons tea rooms. Impact on vulnerable elderly people. Many tourist use car park – advised to do so by Wightlink when waiting for ferry! | |
| Wootton Bridge PC. Lead to more parking in local streets (Mary Rose). Also hardship for people going to new GP surgery who may spend more than an hour there. Also may not get their Px from the local pharmacy in future. | |
| Cowes | Cowes Business Association plus petition |
| Several members of Trinity Theatre and Cowes AODS objecting to extension of charges on the Parade | |
| Extension will also affect RNLI crew ability to attend training or respond to callouts | |
| Cowes TC against extending hours and removal of free afternoon | |
| Sandown | Town council object to 8pm extension of charges |
| Sandown Forum – don’t extend charges to 8pm and don’t revoke free afternoon parking | |
| Ventnor | Town council object to 8pm extension of charges |
| Removal of free afternoon parking will have adverse affect on trade | |
| General | Remove free parking for blue badge holders |
| Complete survey of all parking so charges applied consistently | |
| In towns, on- and off-street have free 30 minutes | |
| Leisure areas, such as seafronts, parks, council attractions, etc say £1 for first two hours, £2 all day | |
| Charges applicable 10am to 6pm. | |
| Changes fundamentally flawed with dubious legality | |
| Don’t extend charges to 8pm (majority mention this) | |
| Scrap them all at weekends | |
| Health visitors and district nurses should be able to buy £50 permit for when making Dvs | |
| Don’t revoke four hour short stay to be replaced with three hours only | |
| On-street parking should be included in residents permit plus six hours is too short for this all-island permit | |
| Charging at Appley and Puckpool is way of taxing family leisure time | |
| Visitors will be driven away to out of town shopping areas | |
| Don’t remove two hours free from leisure centres | |
| Don’t make motorcycles pay at Blackgang viewpoint | |
| Quay Arts Centre – objecting to charges extended to 8pm | |
| High parking charges = less money to spend in local businesses | |
| Are you completely mad? Another rip-off | |
| Deterrent to tourism | |
| Why is Ventnor Industrial Estate car park for permit holders only? | |
| Bring in 20/30 minutes free on-street parking. Allow unexpired period on a ticket to be used in other parking zone with equal or lower charge | |
| Install ticket machines which issue tickets with a time to the value of the coins deposited | |
| Work with new tourism organisation not against it | |
| Work in the evenings and low paid couldn’t afford to park so would have to give up work and claim benefit | |
| Introduce meters at all supermarket/out of town shopping areas | |
| Get rid of the parking department completely | |
| Allow free parking for two hours in all council car parks with time clock (advertising on reverse) | |
| Long-stay permit should be ten hours maximum | |
| Charge blue badge holders to park | |
| Don’t remove half-day free parking in Cowes, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor | |
| Season permits too restrictive | |
| Ryde Business Association – referred to Barnet | |
| Pay and display parking is a great nuisance. Would rather see small rise in council tax and bring back reasonably price residents parking permit | |
| Allow free parking in council car parks for up to two hours controlled by disk clock and only pay after two hours | |
| Need islandwide review of parking. (FSB) | |
| Newport seen as ‘cash cow’ for parking revenue | |
| It would be better to put up council tax than upset motorists | |
| The order is to do with spoiling the lives of residents, destroying local tradesmen’s livelihoods and raising money for a corporation | |
| Look at example of Chichester | |
| Free Saturday parking between October and April | |
| Withdraw all intentions to charge in car parkling places which are currently free and withdraw introduction of charges until 8pm. Request this parking order goes to full council so every elected member may have opportunity to vote and named vote can be published (Cllr Matthew Price) | |
| IW Sports and Recreation Council on behalf of 75+ member clubs | |
| Northwood PC. When the report came before members itincludes financial consequences of the proposals together with econolmic assessment on town centre businesses | |
| Introduce one hour free for all high streets |
