Ruddington residents, traders and visitors WON’T have to pay to use the Church Street Car Park. That was the decision reached unanimously by Councillors at a full meeting of Ruddington Parish Council last night (Tuesday 30th January). However that is not going to be the END of the story…
Currently the only car parking charges in Ruddington are at our Country Park where new pay & display machines (right) with a nominal £1 fee were introduced by Rushcliffe Borough Council in their visitor car park last summer. With our increasing village population, the idea of fees being introduced by the Parish Council was mooted as a way of discouraging motorists from parking for long periods in their village centre car park, next to the Co-op. It’s been noted that on weekdays an average of fifteen spaces are being taken up by people leaving their vehicles there all day – presumably whilst they’re at work. It was suggested to Councillors that drivers should still be allowed to park there for two hours for FREE – as in many of our village centre streets – but that daytime charges could be applied beyond that. A minimum fee of £15 was proposed for anyone who wished to remain there between 6 and 8 hours as a deterrent from doing so! However this proposal was rejected last night.
Parish Council Chairman Allen Wood told RUDDINGTON.info: “It is recognised that the layout of roads in Ruddington does not lend itself to modern day car usage and locations like Charles Street, Shaw Street and Parkyn’s Street pose particular difficulties for residents that own cars. The Councillors recognised that hard decisions will have to be taken and in principal accepted that some form of charging system for our car park may be necessary along with other measures that alleviates some of the residents issues, therefore other options will be investigated and a report brought back to a future meeting.”
The decision will come as a relief to dozens of Ruddingtonians – many of them village centre residents – who took to social media in a storm of protest yesterday after we flagged up that this item would be on the RPC meeting agenda.
Sarah Godfrey commented: “Residents on Charles Street have to park on there as our parking is taken up by people parking up for work all day, deadlocking our street. They are making it impossible to park for home owners then charging us for it???? There was once a realistic proposal that people/workers could park all day on Elms Park but it wasn’t followed up. I think it should be.”
Sue Clark suggested: “Why don’t the council consider parking permits?!? It’s already an absolute nightmare for those who need to use off-street parking because they live here in the village! Church Street is so over crowded with cars from outside the village. I live on this street, I should be able to park on it too! This is just going to make matters worse.”
Debs Hayball agreed: “Residents should be given permits – as they are in West Bridgford; parking restricted to 2hrs which should give anyone supporting our local shops sufficient time. Those who park all day to hop on the bus into town should use the formal Park & Ride!”
In fact, many villagers seem to like the idea of introducing a resident parking pass system, although Dawn Ellingham Martin thinks: “It would have to be for all residents, not just those who live centrally or villagers who live a bit further away will stop using amenities. I drop my kids at various clubs through the week and it’s not always possible to walk, plus doctors’ visits, etc.”
Ian Burton commented: “My doctors are in Ruddington as I used to live there for many years. If you start charging to park, people will not shop down Ruddington – who will moan then when the shops have no customers. Not good.”
Rhiannon Haslam is someone who commutes to our village: “Unless allocated parking for businesses is introduced I would really struggle to keep my job in Ruddington. I live a long way out and will potentially move even further away. I also need to use my car for work some days so public transport isn’t particularly helpful to me. Charging for parking would just increase parking on residential streets which I’m sure already irritates people who live there.”
However Deborah Moore said: “I’m FOR the parking charge. They also need pay and display on all the roads. But with the pay and display you can redeem the cost in any shop in Ruddington.”
Pip Hodgman suggested: “Instead of introducing parking charges they should be looking at things that would benefit the people of Ruddington, like safe pathways (Wilford Road!) to get kids to school and not having to decide between ‘an accident waiting to happen’ route or negotiate mud baths if trying to take the alternative route over 50 steps (railway bridge) to avoid a dangerous journey… all in all to stressful resulting in driving, increasing traffic congestion….”
Former Parish Councillor Nick Tegerdine summed up the issues: “Rudd traffic problems were identified in a survey done three years ago. Simply put … old road system, HGVs cutting through, some workers parking where their customers want to (then complaints), people driving short distances rather than walking, AND the fact that the County (who deal with traffic issues) have no money. It is a problem that requires everyone to take responsibility rather than heaping blame elsewhere.”
These are just SOME of the very many comments made so far on Ruddington’s Facebook page and it’s certain this debate will rumble on and on! You can read the rest – and leave your own thoughts on parking in Ruddington – >>HERE<<.
You can also download RPC’s full Traffic & Transport Plan from January 2015 >>HERE<<.
