Tuesday 17th August saw Newcastle residents of the West Brampton Area of Town Ward gather to meet with the residents association, Local Councillor Dave Clarke and One of the local PCSOs.
The issue of parking around the West Brampton area has been a hot potato for many years. Every day residents come into the area and park their cars, often leaving them for long periods. Not only do they do this, but there are often instances of Double parking, parking in front of Garages, blocking people in parking on the curb, Parking in turning circles and other instances of selfish behaviour.
The streets around the West Brampton area are “Except for Access Areas, meaning that vehicles should not enter the zone unless accessing the properties.
Local residents have now for some years obtained a Paper permit from the Local council offices in Merrial Street.
These passes allow one car and one visiting car per household to park in the streets and avoid receiving a ticket from either police or Parking Officials. However, in recent years due to motorists contesting the issuing of tickets, the authorisation to issue legally binding has been removed from the PCSOs.
Borough Council parking staff seem unsure of the rules as to whether or not they are allowed to issue tickets to cars not displaying the local permits.
Previous meetings between the council, the police and residents have been largely fruitless, ending up in the debate about what is to be done going around in circles.
In Previous meetings, Police informed residents that, although cars shouldn’t be entering the area, they were not able to issue tickets, as parking in these areas is not technically illegal, but driving through is. However, Common sense would dictate that to park, one has to drive and therefore the car has contravened the law.
It is this sort of red tape that has the residents of the West Brampton area hopping mad, and last night they gave Councillor Dave Clarke a piece of their mind.
The Council was accused of not caring about local residents as it was “allowing local workers to distribute cars throughout residential areas so that it could ignore its responsibility to provide adequate town parking.
When Councillor Clarke suggested a new “trial Scheme” where residents would get new permits and the displaying of permits would be enforced. residents responded angrily, stating that they already had a scheme, and they just wanted that scheme to work and that any new scheme would be simply a way to introduce a paid, residents parking zone by the back door, something residents have previously stated that they do not want.
In recent weeks police have been working with Local MP and have started to issue Warning leaflets (See Below).
One resident asked Councillor Clarke if a petition was gathered by Residents, would the councillor present it to the County Council? Councillor Clarke said that he would do this.
The Saga continues.
