Council Executive to consider new parking strategy for the Isle of Wight

Members of the Isle of Wight Executive will be considering a long-awaited document this week.

The draft Parking Strategy is the outcome of stakeholder and public consultations conducted last year. The paper recommends the Executive “accept the draft strategy as supported by the public consultation as the final strategy” (see the highlights).

Parking is a big earner for the council, with income in excess of £4m per annum, but it’s a subject, like ferries and dog mess, that is taken very seriously by Islanders.

Creating the strategy
Consultants, White Young Green, were appointed to develop a parking strategy for the next four years.

The strategy will seek to provide:

Greater support for local residents and visitors
Support for local businesses
A reduction in traffic congestion
An improved local environment, including reduced carbon emissions
Optimised and more reliable streams of income
Develop local implementation plans in key areas

White Young Green consulted with town and parish councils, business associations and local transport operators; as well as gathering extensive information for on and off street car parking provision, car park usage and ticketing, and a detailed review of parking policy.

They also modelled potential future demand and carried out detailed parking surveys at key locations across the Isle of Wight.

Judging by the survey results in the papers below, around 180 people completed the online survey. That’s 0.0012% of the population.

Public in favour of recommendations
88.54% of those responding to the public consultation stated they either did not have a preference or agreed or strongly agreed with the recommendations made.

The paper claims, “The results show that public clearly responding to the survey are very supportive of the general recommendations made by the draft strategy”.

Highlights
Some of the highlights of the strategy document include:

Implement measures to control the supply, maintenance, pricing strategy, payment method and enforcement
Develop local strategies based on supply and demand
Work with town and parish council to negate the conflicts between shoppers and commuters
Ensure correct signage to direct to short/long term parking
Review payment methods to ensure flexible enough for shoppers
Introduce real-time information boards indicating how many spaces are in town centre and commercial car parks
Long-stay parking should be prioritised on sites further away from shopping and commercial centres as well as those located in close proximity to the ferry terminals and train stations
Continue providing parking permits and visitor permits
Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) should be considered in areas with supply and demand is evidenced
Consider provision of free on-street short-stay parking (up to one hour, with no return within two hours) at parking locations in or near shopping or commercial centres
Consistent pricing strategy across all car parks – reviewed annually
Cost of parking permits should be reviewed annually
The current cost of parking permits was considered ‘reasonable’
Develop a parking enforcement strategy to ensure restrictions and tariff are compiled with
Parking guidelines for developments should be created
Ensure suitable provision for electric car charging
Existing parking capacity across the Island sufficient during the day but have capacity issues at night when parking charges do not apply
Council should seek to provide additional parking where excessive parking stress is properly identified, which would help reduce congestion and searching times.