If you are a landlord in Oldfield Park, Lower Weston and the Chelsea Road area, you need to know that BANES is embarking on a programme of Residents’ Parking Zones that will cause huge difficulties and extra cost for you and your tenants, 7 days per week! There are 7 consultations at the moment and while some consultations like Oldfield Park have closed, individuals still have the opportunity to lobby the Council and shame the Councillors. Taking Oldfield Park as an example, landlords weren’t consulted about these changes, only residents were. If your tenants didn’t mention it, you wouldn’t have known.
Where consultations are still live (see highlighted link above), we encourage you to complete the consultation before the closing dates.
The main complaint is about lack of parking caused by commuters and houses with multiple vehicles. I know that parking is more difficult now than previously. However, BANES wants to charge up to £400 for a parking permit – apparently, as part of its budget drive it wants to increase revenue from car parking by £1.7m. The parking permits will probably create more parking spaces for residents but the alternative, simply limiting on street parking to 3 hours, wouldn’t produce an income stream for the Council even though it would solve many of the parking problems.
It’s time for action. People can speak to the Council meeting on 21 February for 3 minutes and shame the councillors into changing the policy. I have attached a link to a Facebook page that is relevant (look for Martin Thomas, posted on 2 January). We need a stream of people to voice their opposition at this Council meeting and we need the BBC and ITV to be there as well. One respondent said that in Walcot, more than 70% of respondents objected to the scheme but the Councillors still pressed ahead. This lack of democracy is a disgraceful abuse of power.
Get motivated! It’s in your interest to stop this ridiculous policy.
