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Residents and visitors highly rate parking services
21 AUGUST 2007: UNANIMOUS
approval from Harrogate Borough Council's Human Resources
Committee to provide *extra resources for its parking service is
followed by news that residents, visitors and tourists are overall
satisfied with the council's parking policies.
Results of a recent survey, carried out as part of the
council's Overview and Scrutiny Commission's consideration of the
council's parking procedures, not only showed a high level of
satisfaction over a number of services but those consulted agreed
with the council's own position on why parking controls are
necessary. This includes: improving traffic
flow; reducing the risk of accidents, regulating and controlling
parking and reducing congestion in town centres.
Councillor Don Mackenzie, Cabinet Member of Planning and
Transport, welcomed the survey's findings, which will now be used
to inform the Overview and Scrutiny's
discussions. He said: "There were some very
interesting findings in the survey which will allay some anecdotal
evidence that parking charges have a damaging affect the
economy. Whilst the majority of local residents
confirmed that they use free disc parking as their main source of
parking space, the majority of visitors confirmed that they
certainly expected to have to pay for parking in the town centres
and over eighty per cent felt the cost was reasonable.
"It was also interesting to hear that a third of those
surveyed in Ripon parked free, using private or corporate car parks
far higher than in Harrogate or Knaresborough.
But as with other areas, shopping accounted for the most
responses."
Respondents were also clear that enforcement is necessary but
there is some concern that they did not seem to understand the
appeals process or the reduction in cost for early payment of
fines. The council will be addressing this as
well as other areas of concern including continuing negotiations
for more parking in Ripon and Knaresborough, which was highlighted
by the survey. ENDS
NOTE TO EDITORS: *The Police have
withdrawn from a number of parking and highway controls much of
which has now fallen on the local authority's car parking service
without extra resources being provided. The
council has now agreed to provide extra funding to assist the
parking service in coning and managing traffic at major events and,
importantly, to respond to residents' complaints about parking
abuse. The council currently has three senior
car parking attendants and this number will increase to six to
cover the district's 500 square miles.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Councillor Don
Mackenzie is available for comment on 01423
872211. Further technical information is
available from Mr John Burton, Head of Highways and Transportation
on 01423 556606.