Changes to parking charges in Ryde could be reconsidered, following an Isle of Wight Council debate on the plans (read in full here).
Almost the entire council voted to reconsider the proposals to introduce on-street parking charges in certain areas, after a petition of 3,851 signatures was put before last night’s full council meeting by Ryde town councillor, Karen Lucioni, including Cabinet members.
Cllrs Ian Ward and John Nicholson abstained from the vote.
Lucioni: “First impressions count”
Cllr Lucioni said no other petition had seen such a response in such a short space of time.
She said:
“We are a commuter town — one of the many gateways to our Island and first impressions count. We do not want the image of our Island blighted by a high street full of closed shops.
“Parking charges will badly affect the town centre and lead to closures.
“We need to be supporting our shops and local businesses.”
Support from local Ryde councillors
A number of Isle of Wight councillors spoke in favour of reconsidering the changes to parking charges, including Cllrs Adrian Axford and Wayne Whittle.
Cllr Axford said:
“Our shops are already suffering too much competition from out of town shopping centres and online shopping.”
Ward councillor for Newport East, Cllr Geoff Brodie also spoke about the impact of parking charges in Newport.
He said:
“It’s time Newport was treated fairly, alongside all the other towns on the Isle of Wight.
“I am sure we could do something entirely similar [to the petition] in Newport, but we decided not to.”
The draft budget plans
Under the latest budget plans, parking charges could be levied in key locations — such as Nodehill and Crocker Street in Newport and Union Street in Ryde.
However, the council has said another option would be to make Union Street a single parking zone. Currently the street is divided into four zones, which councillors said provided a ‘loophole’ allowing people to park on the street all day for free.
Currently, 65 per cent of all parking income is generated in Newport.
£5.5m of cuts each year for next three years
Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Cllr Dave Stewart, said:
“It’s one of the benefits of bringing this budget out early that has enabled such feedback to be received.”
He went on to reiterate – backed up by Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Resources, Cllr Stuart Hutchinson – the need for the Isle of Wight council to make cuts of £5.5m each year over the next three years.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some additions by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: simonhaytack under CC BY 2.0
