Residents' parking permits set to rise (From Swindon Advertiser)

Trying to raise revenue in the current climate? Oh well pardon me, why didn't you say earlier? By all means plunder my ****ing bank account because the rest of us are doing fine.

Internal spending at Swindon Borough Council is scandalously irresponsible. I suggest you look a bit closer to home for savings before enforcing 60%+ rises on those of us who already pay you triple figures every month.

I can't even move my car out from Western Street as SBC haven't gritted it once in all of January, since way before the grit levels started running low.

This is disgraceful.

If Old Town Residents want to keep Old Town to themselves, let them pay for it..
At last a decision from the SBC that I approve of.

It's disgraceful to put up residents parking again, as most people will know that live in residents parking areas trying to get a space in the zone for which you have paid, is difficult to say the least, sometimes impossible, there are not enough spaces and residents often end up getting tickets as there is no where to park, but to rub salt in by raising the cost of a permit is outrageous. Why do Swindon residents that live in these areas have to pay so much to park a car near their house when in non residents parking areas people still park in the street, free of charge, with no risk of parking tickets, we all pay our council tax, why keep punishing residents that live in residents parking areas, why should we take the brunt of raising revenue?

IRofE wrote:
If Old Town Residents want to keep Old Town to themselves, let them pay for it.. At last a decision from the SBC that I approve of.

It says Swindon, not just Old Town?

swindonmum wrote:

IRofE wrote: If Old Town Residents want to keep Old Town to themselves, let them pay for it.. At last a decision from the SBC that I approve of.

It says Swindon, not just Old Town?

The CPZ map is 90% Old town.
Like I said, if Old own residents wants it, then let them pay for the commodity.
Who else in swindon has the privilege to have a resident Permit?

Will any of this money go towards policing or cameras to catch the little ****'s who love to go around town ripping off wing mirrors and windscreen wipers?

No? Didn't think so...

Will the people who live in the Broad St area get a rebate for the period when wardens were tolerating illegal parking by Muslims attending the mosque. If not, why not?

"Who else in swindon has the privilege to have a resident Permit?"

If you think it's a privilege, I'll gladly let you pay for mine.

I suppose there is always the arguement that no one has the 'right' to park on the road outside their own property, a residents permit then limits the amount of people that can park, therefore there should be a charge. If you have a driveway then you would have paid a premium for your property, swings and roundabouts. Get rid of the permit and then all and sundry will park in the street!

Only the British would fill their garage up with junk and leave their cars on the street. :)

swindonmum wrote:
I suppose there is always the arguement that no one has the 'right' to park on the road outside their own property, a residents permit then limits the amount of people that can park, therefore there should be a charge. If you have a driveway then you would have paid a premium for your property, swings and roundabouts. Get rid of the permit and then all and sundry will park in the street!

As clearly demonstrated, residential parking on the street (built and maintained by public funds) is a commodity. So it is fair to pay for it if residents want exclusive usage of it.

I don't think paying for it is the issue here. I agree it is a necessary evil of living in town and I certainly don't begrudge paying £25 a year. The argument is the sudden massive price hike proposed. For my 1 car and 2 books of visitors permits I currently pay £35 a year, this proposal will double that to £70. What other commodity could justify a 100% price increase in one year?

swindonmum wrote:
I suppose there is always the arguement that no one has the 'right' to park on the road outside their own property, a residents permit then limits the amount of people that can park, therefore there should be a charge. If you have a driveway then you would have paid a premium for your property, swings and roundabouts. Get rid of the permit and then all and sundry will park in the street!

If you are lucky enough to have a premium property and the luxury of a driveway, great, but why should we less well off people have to pay to park on the street outside our cheaper homes, when premium residents with driveways still park on the street outside their homes, sometimes with 2 or 3 of their cars, so because their house was dearer to buy, they paid for the right to park in their street with the premium paid on their house! I dont think that is really fair.

nansview wrote:

swindonmum wrote: I suppose there is always the arguement that no one has the 'right' to park on the road outside their own property, a residents permit then limits the amount of people that can park, therefore there should be a charge. If you have a driveway then you would have paid a premium for your property, swings and roundabouts. Get rid of the permit and then all and sundry will park in the street!

If you are lucky enough to have a premium property and the luxury of a driveway, great, but why should we less well off people have to pay to park on the street outside our cheaper homes, when premium residents with driveways still park on the street outside their homes, sometimes with 2 or 3 of their cars, so because their house was dearer to buy, they paid for the right to park in their street with the premium paid on their house! I dont think that is really fair.

I didn't say I had a driveway, I was playing devils advocate!

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote: I suppose there is always the arguement that no one has the 'right' to park on the road outside their own property, a residents permit then limits the amount of people that can park, therefore there should be a charge. If you have a driveway then you would have paid a premium for your property, swings and roundabouts. Get rid of the permit and then all and sundry will park in the street!

As clearly demonstrated, residential parking on the street (built and maintained by public funds) is a commodity. So it is fair to pay for it if residents want exclusive usage of it.

I dont want exclusive us of it! When I bought the house 20 years ago, there was no residents parking nonsence and no problems at all. I would have no problem with anyone wanting to park in the street, couldn't think what on earth they would want to if they dont live near or visiting, but before residents parking was introduced, this was never a problem. Why cant our street be the same as non residential areas presumably they dont want exclusive use either, residents parking was forced on us not chosen!

The problem is most residents parking areas are close to the town or other areas of high visitation. Without the residents parking then anyone would be parking there all day everyday, then people who live in the area would have no where to park. The council need to charge a fee as the cost of policy this dictates

' cost of policing this dictates'

aynsley wrote:
I don't think paying for it is the issue here. I agree it is a necessary evil of living in town and I certainly don't begrudge paying £25 a year. The argument is the sudden massive price hike proposed. For my 1 car and 2 books of visitors permits I currently pay £35 a year, this proposal will double that to £70. What other commodity could justify a 100% price increase in one year?

Didn't hear you complain when:
the non residential Parking time was reduced from 1H to 5 minutes!
You want the street, then pay for it

IRofE wrote:

aynsley wrote:
I don't think paying for it is the issue here. I agree it is a necessary evil of living in town and I certainly don't begrudge paying £25 a year. The argument is the sudden massive price hike proposed. For my 1 car and 2 books of visitors permits I currently pay £35 a year, this proposal will double that to £70. What other commodity could justify a 100% price increase in one year?

Didn't hear you complain when:
the non residential Parking time was reduced from 1H to 5 minutes!
You want the street, then pay for it

When was that? I've lived in my house for 8 years and I don't remember it being an hour.

I don't 'want the street', I have a requirement to park my car somewhere.

And as I said, I'm not complaining about paying for it, I'm complaining about the sudden doubling of the cost. If the train or bus fares suddenly doubled there would probably be a few voices of opposition.

There was NO problems with parking before R.P. was introduced, with RP came yellow lines and visitors one hour areas, so room for parking was reduced by half! So we pay, which would be great if there was a space for everyone, but there are more cars than spaces, and we are the wardens favourite run as they know this and the residents without a space, have to pay a further fee then in the form of a ticket. R.P. is not working!

nansview wrote:
There was NO problems with parking before R.P. was introduced, with RP came yellow lines and visitors one hour areas, so room for parking was reduced by half! So we pay, which would be great if there was a space for everyone, but there are more cars than spaces, and we are the wardens favourite run as they know this and the residents without a space, have to pay a further fee then in the form of a ticket. R.P. is not working!

I feel that if RP was removed you would have a problem now, there are far more cars on the road and car parking in public car parks is extortinate, therefore free parking in streets is very attractive for workers and shoppers.

nansview wrote:
There was NO problems with parking before R.P. was introduced, with RP came yellow lines and visitors one hour areas, so room for parking was reduced by half! So we pay, which would be great if there was a space for everyone, but there are more cars than spaces, and we are the wardens favourite run as they know this and the residents without a space, have to pay a further fee then in the form of a ticket. R.P. is not working!

The problem with Old Town are the businesses. They create the traffic, create parking demand etc...
Get rid of the businesses in Old Town and you have solved all the parking issues.

IRofE, Your obsessed with Old Town, I dont live in O.T.! Swindonmum I can see your point and appreciate what you are saying, I still think considering the problems we face with limited spaces, the proposed huge raise is totally disgraceful.

IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

nansview wrote:
IRofE, Your obsessed with Old Town, I dont live in O.T.! Swindonmum I can see your point and appreciate what you are saying, I still think considering the problems we face with limited spaces, the proposed huge raise is totally disgraceful.

Ok if you get rid of the businesses in the Swindon CPZ then you have no more parking problems.
If a town referendum is mounted I would most certainly support the motion to increase RP.

swindonmum wrote:
IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

If I want to park in town I have to pay for it: £1.20/h so I think that despite this increase, £40/year is still extremely good value for money

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote: IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

If I want to park in town I have to pay for it: £1.20/h so I think that despite this increase, £40/year is still extremely good value for money

I agree with you, but you still haven't answered the 90% question.

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote:

IRofE wrote: If Old Town Residents want to keep Old Town to themselves, let them pay for it.. At last a decision from the SBC that I approve of.

It says Swindon, not just Old Town?

The CPZ map is 90% Old town.
Like I said, if Old own residents wants it, then let them pay for the commodity.
Who else in swindon has the privilege to have a resident Permit?

It's not a privilege, it's something Old Town residents are forced to pay for if they want to park their car within a mile of their house.

We've paid for it since day one, it's the huge rise that is the point here.

swindonmum wrote:

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote: IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

If I want to park in town I have to pay for it: £1.20/h so I think that despite this increase, £40/year is still extremely good value for money

I agree with you, but you still haven't answered the 90% question.

Check the Swindon Old town Conservation Area available at the SBC.
You will read that most of it is actually occupied by businesses and that these businesses are being lost, why?
Anything to do with parking maybe?

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote:
IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

If I want to park in town I have to pay for it: £1.20/h so I think that despite this increase, £40/year is still extremely good value for money

I think you are really struggling to understand the point. OT residents (and others) have been paying for RP for years now. Free parking is a thing of the past and you have to pay to park ANYWHERE.

If SBC tried to double the cost of anything else in Swindon they'd hit a brick wall but with this they've already got guaranteed custom: people who can't afford houses with off street parking and who need to put their car somewhere.

The only way to not pay is to get rid of your car which solves another SBC problem for them while they sit in their @rses doing nothing.

MarketZero wrote:

IRofE wrote:

swindonmum wrote: IRofE what do you class as Old Town?? I agree some of the streets in OT are Residents Parking, but what about the ones around Westcott Place,Euclid Street and Broad Street etc, I am still trying to work out where you get 90% in Old Town.

If I want to park in town I have to pay for it: £1.20/h so I think that despite this increase, £40/year is still extremely good value for money

I think you are really struggling to understand the point. OT residents (and others) have been paying for RP for years now. Free parking is a thing of the past and you have to pay to park ANYWHERE. If SBC tried to double the cost of anything else in Swindon they'd hit a brick wall but with this they've already got guaranteed custom: people who can't afford houses with off street parking and who need to put their car somewhere. The only way to not pay is to get rid of your car which solves another SBC problem for them while they sit in their @rses doing nothing.

I understand your frustration, however if you require exclusive usage of a bit of road for your personal, residential use, you have to pay and you have to pay a fair price. what is £40/ year vs £1.20/H?
very cheap .....

Hang on a minute, I pay £40 p/a for the CHANCE to have a space near my house (often have to park in neighbouring streets) PLUS I pay circa £1.20p/h to park in council car parks like you do. I'm not sure why you keep quoting your car park fees. We all pay 'em.

FYI there are a fair number of car parks cheaper than £1.20 per hour in town. You should use them.

To clarify: if I was guaranteed a spot right outside my house for my personal use then fine, £40 would be embarassingly good value. However, when you do have to move severa streets away or, very rarely, can't find a single spot in your zone. You start to wonder what you are paying for.

It's the same feeling as spending £40 for a train journey to London and having to stand up throughout.

MarketZero wrote:
Hang on a minute, I pay £40 p/a for the CHANCE to have a space near my house (often have to park in neighbouring streets) PLUS I pay circa £1.20p/h to park in council car parks like you do. I'm not sure why you keep quoting your car park fees. We all pay 'em. FYI there are a fair number of car parks cheaper than £1.20 per hour in town. You should use them.

The road isn't yours, you made that choice to buy and live there.
Now, you want exclusive use of it, then it is fair you pay for it.
£40/year is nothing for the chance to park nearby your residence. Most Swindonians do not have this privilege.
You should be thankful and stop moaning about your little space, because quite legally you not supposed to have one at all!

IRofE, after having read your comments - an unpleasant mix of bitterness, spite and unbridled jealousy - I feel more happy to pay an increased Residents Parking Permit charge.

If it helps keeps you out of the area it'll be money well spent.

Thanks for reading, I'll let you get back to obsessing about Old Town's parking arrangements now.

Thankful? If this street didn't have street parking then the houses would cost less. It's a facility we pay for both through the price of the house and then the permit.

A service was offered and I paid for it, quite why I should still be thankful afterwards is beyond me.

Do you leave your £1.20p/h car park with a basking in the warm glow of gratitude that such a service was provided? No, you saw a service, noted the price and paid it, a business transaction just like everyone else.

You said you could understand my frustration, I fail to comprehend yours. A non RP payer yet with more posts on this thread than anyone else.

Big Mac wrote:
IRofE, after having read your comments - an unpleasant mix of bitterness, spite and unbridled jealousy - I feel more happy to pay an increased Residents Parking Permit charge. If it helps keeps you out of the area it'll be money well spent. Thanks for reading, I'll let you get back to obsessing about Old Town's parking arrangements now.

I am just making a valid point, that if you want your bit of road then you have to pay for it.
Don't worry I very rarely go to Old Town, Town centre. Shops are poor, food is poor, people are poor. The only expensive things are the drinks and parking and houses used to be too:-)

MarketZero wrote:
Thankful? If this street didn't have street parking then the houses would cost less. It's a facility we pay for both through the price of the house and then the permit. A service was offered and I paid for it, quite why I should still be thankful afterwards is beyond me. Do you leave your £1.20p/h car park with a basking in the warm glow of gratitude that such a service was provided? No, you saw a service, noted the price and paid it, a business transaction just like everyone else. You said you could understand my frustration, I fail to comprehend yours. A non RP payer yet with more posts on this thread than anyone else.

if that reassure you, I would love RP to be rolled accross the whole town, I have no problem paying £40 for parking my car where I live.

"I am just making a valid point, that if you want your bit of road then you have to pay for it."

Which kind of proves it's an invalid point... nobody pays for 'their bit of road'.

A Residents Parking Permit merely allows the holder to legitimately park in bays within a specific zone.

You might get a space in your own street, you might get one a few streets away. You aren't even allocated or guaranteed a space at all.

In my specific area there are about 12 residents parking spaces and about 9 parking spaces that are open to all-comers.

Given that it's a residential area and there is a public car park within 90 seconds walking distance, I fail to see what your problem is.

£40 to be allowed to possibly get a parking space in your own street is hardly spectacular generosity on the Council's part.

I can't say I particularly mind paying it - Council Tax is far higher and even less value - but to rant about how people who live in Old Town should somehow count themselves lucky to have to fork out this additional tax is plain ridiculous.

In my area, close to the town centre, the majority of cars parked belong to residents.
When the R.P scheme was thrust upon us, it was followed by an increse in yellow lines, making even fewer places.
At midday there are dozens of available spaces, until residents arrive home from work.
The council are obviously aware of the situation, because the wardens are sent around in the early hours of the morning, to ticket the residents cars, before they get a chance to drive off to work.
The R.P. scheme, in my area is little more than a thinly veiled stealth tax, promoting a fascist style pilfering in fines, to people that just want to go about their daily business. It does little to promote logistics or safety. Cars blocking alleyways, or gateways are not penalised in any way.
As for IRofE's persecution of Old Town residents, this is the fellow who was concerned that he ought to be able to leave a car parked in The Oasis Sports Centre car park, if he wants to catch a train.

This is a stealth tax and is blatant discrimination against people living in the areas where there are resident parking schemes, in our area resident parking is not needed or wanted so if we have to have it then so should every road in Swindon if not then resident parking schemes should be removed in every area.