Way back in July, members of the Isle of Wight council Executive voted in favour of several changes to parking charges across the Island.
One of those items that was approved was the removal of one afternoon a week free car parking in five towns (Cowes, Newport, Shanklin, Sandown and Ventnor), with the public being told it would be implemented as soon as possible.
The free parking continued for over three months with many residents, not surprisingly, forgetting about the impending changes.
Free parking no more
However, the honeymoon period is now over.
The Isle of Wight council have confirmed that meters and tariff boards were changed in the five car parks between 3rd and 14th November and as evidenced by the photo above of the Central car park in Ventnor, a strip of brown tape covers where it previously read,
Businesses were not happy.
“Dismayed (to say the least)”
One business owner in Ventnor told OnTheWight,
“Myself and fellow shopkeepers are dismayed (to say the least!). We had no prior warning of this – other than to see two traffic wardens putting warning notices on windscreens and when questioned being alerted to the blacked out of the “Free Car parking after 1pm on Thursdays” sign. Surely there should have been prior notification?
“Although some of us knew that this was going to happen eventually – the timing couldn’t have been worse for trade – with Christmas around the corner. I have already had feedback from a customer from Ryde who regularly comes to Ventnor on Thursday afternoon to ‘shop, browse have a cuppa and generally enjoy the atmosphere’.”
IWC: “Significant press coverage about this implementation”
OnTheWight asked the council whether any warnings had been put in place at the five car parks to let residents know the free car parking had been removed.
A spokesperson for the council replied,
“The new tariff boards clearly display the new charges and there has been significant press coverage about this implementation.”
We’re slightly confused about the “significant press coverage about this implementation”. We haven’t seen anything recently warning residents about the changes coming into force (and we’re in the press).
Luckily for those caught out by the changes, the Civil Enforcement Officers were initially only issuing warnings rather than PCNs. However, that hasn’t stopped local businesses being unhappy with the lack of notice given to drivers.
