Your views on residents' parking charges

7.38.41pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 19th Jun 2006

David Rundle and I with our Headington traffic survey

Phew - not sure I knew what I was letting myself in for last week-end when sending out an e-mail to local residents setting out my opposition to the Tory County Council's proposals to charge for residents' parking. Huge amounts of feedback: mostly dead against charging, though only fair to acknowledge a couple of people have replied to say they're in favour.

Anyway, here's a flavour of the comments I've received, suitably anonymised:

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It is good to know that the Liberal Democrats are trying to prevent the introduction of residents' parking charges, and we will be writing to the County Council to voice our opposition. In addition, we will sign your petition.

Again, thank you for the active support you give to our community which is much appreciated.

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I have already strongly objected.

However i fear that the consultation is a cosmetic exercise and no regard will be taken of the protests.

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I've browsed through the parking charge consultation documents and it seems to make reasonable sense to me - I'm only surprised that it's the Tories who are introducing it! It seems more of a Green/Liberal Democrat policy. I think it meets Green credentials, and the price is not exorbitant if it is used (as they say it might) to improve public transport. I don't see a poll tax on cars is so bad a thing!

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I thank you for your stand on residents' parking charging. This is a disgraceful piece of tax-raising opportunism by the Tory County Council, and it is interesting to note that whilst they are happy to charge all car owners, they are not interested in everyone's view- only one questionnaire was delivered to our house, despite the fact that there are four car using adults in it. There was no box to tick asking our opinion on whether there should be a charge at all, only how much it should be. I do not believe for a moment that they will even bother to read them, anyway. It makes you think that the interests of Oxford residents would be better served by a unitary authority as has recently been mooted.

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Completely against resident parking charges.

1. What do we pay taxes for.

2. We pay enough for houses in Headington without the insult of not being able to park outside them.

3. It's just an extra charge for living close to hospitals.

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Many of the current problems necessitating the residents' parking schemes are caused by the council's unrealistic bans on extra parking requested by the hospitals in the Headington area. I believe that the NOC wanted to build an underground car park for their new buildings but were turned down(I also hear that the Manor hospital was allowed to build one!)The problems in the streets around the NOC are a direct result of this decision!! Councillors have be to realistic about the sort of people who go to hospitals - the old, the infirm, the ill and their relatives. I unfortunately have to frequent the NOC quite often and I have tried using the "bus service " provided. At both the NOC and the Churchill you have to wait outside with no seats, not knowing how long it might be, and the minibus when it comes has several steep steps. They could not have chosen a more difficult design for those who are orthopaedically challenged. These are the realities of the public transport you advocate! Luckily there a few parking slots on Windmill Road and if you are lucky you might find one empty.

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I live in [Headington] and am actually in favour of parking permits and charging for them! I think a car should be a luxury not a right. I don't approve of free parking in the city centre I agree that is ludicrous to charge residents and let visitors off.

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Something people haven't thought about is that if the charges are levied, we will lose even more front gardens in our sort of road to personal car spaces as people rip down their fences and concrete over the front gardens - this affects the City built Environment just as badly as having too many cars.

I have completed the questionnaire and proposed a revised fee of £0.00.

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[Copy of letter sent to County Council]: I strongly object to the introduction of charges for a parking scheme that has been forced upon us as a result of congestion caused by ridiculous planning decisions that have turned our community into a nightmare of traffic blackspots and a misery for visitors and residents alike. An expanded Orthopaedic Hospital is by definition going to attract large numbers of disabled people. With a disabled permit they can park where they like for two hours [ defeats the purpose of a scheme], without, they must either pay out a small fortune in the packed and tiny car park on site, hobble from Headington or endure the miseries of the Park and Ride currently lost behind the roadworks at Green Rd. This road system was never going to be able to cope and we made this clear from the outset. Now we literally have to pay the price for poor planning by the Council.…

A perk of residence it clearly is not. We all have to juggle for space just as we used to. The lucky few with off street parking also have rights to permits. Many move their cars onto the street in the day so that their visitors can park free of the demand for a visitors permit. … I agree that the road is a public highway and no one should have any more right to a space than anyone else but all residents are not equal in this respect.

If the scheme is going to be administered in the tragically mismanaged way in which it was introduced to us, I certainly do not want to pay a penny for it. Where is all the revenue from the fines going? Two of my visitors have already received fines because they did not keep an eye on the clock. Soon I shall not need permits for them as people will stop visiting all together. As it is I can only invite visitors who can manage a longish walk from the nearest available space. Our road has nothing like enough space for those who live here. … If you could offer us more spaces in which to park, I might be persuaded that there was some kind of service in operation here. Until then, I will not support the introduction of parking charges and call for a thorough review of the way in which the scheme has been managed.

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Keep Residents' Parking Free

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While you make some good points, I am not sure that in principle making residents pay for parking on the street is unreasonable, especially if parking on the street impairs the street's role as a public thoroughfare and the safety of those using it. I note that you accept payments that cover the cost of enforcing residents' parking schemes.

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