News
Possible Introduction of Charges for Quay Street Car Park
Friday 19th August 2016
-
The Agenda for Tuesday's (16th August) Lostwithiel Council meeting contains an item “Quay Street car park - to consider the introduction of parking charges.”
No more information is available at this stage, although it is interesting to note that no mention of this proposal was included in the “Ideas for Transport” edition of the Neighbourhood Plan newsletter, which was published only a week ago.
The Lostwithiel Transport Survey conducted in March-April 2016 did not ask a specific question about charging for Quay St Car park, but there was a question about charging for Cattle Market Car park. Answers were analysed as follows:-
“Respondents were specifically asked about how any increased costs of the old Cattle Market car park should be met. Of the choices offered, 56 favoured meeting this
through an increase in Council Tax and 37 favoured the introduction of parking charges: a ratio of 3:2 in favour of retaining parking that is completely free at the point of use. There was no difference between car owners and non-owners on this question. However, there was a tendency for the over 60s to prefer parking charges to Council Tax increases, reflecting the greater sensitivity to Council Tax in this age group. It should be noted that the question asked about additional costs being met in these ways but respondents may have answered on the basis of a general preference for Council Tax as against parking charges.”
The full analysis of the Transport survey is available via this link
More details of the proposal will be provided at the next Council meeting, which starts at 7pm in The Church Room on 16th August.
UPDATE 19TH AUGUST
About a dozen Quay Street residents and business owners attended the Town Council meeting on 16th August. Five of these people spoke at the start of the meeting to oppose the proposal.
Councillor May introduced the topic and told the meeting that he had received a complaint about people leaving cars parked on the quay for a long period of time, and in some cases even going on holiday via the Railway station. He suggested that introducing a charging system for the car park would prevent this, and provide an income for the council.
Several councillors spoke against the proposal, raising the cost of collecting the payments and pointing out that a community consultation about transport, including parking, was currently taking place.
There was no seconder for Councillor May's proposal to introduce a pay and display system for Quay St car park and so no vote on the motion was taken. The council agreed to delay any further discussion on the topic until after the results of the Neighbourhood Plan consultation.