Headline issues for Bath
Which elements of parking supply and management do you think currently work well?
The roll out of residents’ parking spaces in the city centre
The Park and Ride Service
Charlotte Street Car Park
What do you see as the main problems and issues?
A failure of current policy to either reduce traffic coming into the city centre or provide adequate parking to get it off the streets
Poor signage to off street facilities
The use of parking spaces by motorcycles
Parking on pavements
Building new hotels and offices without proper consideration of the implications for parking provision
The early closure of Park and Ride car parks
Lack of capacity in P&R east of Bath
What one issue would you consider it most important for the Parking Strategy to address for Bath?
Getting cars coming to the city parked off street as soon as possible in their journey i.e. minimising low speed stop start driving in the city centre and minimising on street parking by visitors and commuters and where possible parking them outside the city.
Detailed issues for Bath
The development of the Enterprise Area sites in the City Centre (at Bath Quays/Manvers Street and Cattle Market) will affect existing public off-street parking (836 spaces). The Transport Strategy (Getting Around Bath) requires retention of at least 500 of these public parking spaces when these areas are built-out.
What role do you see these retained and improved parking spaces having/who do you think should be the priority users?
Firstly, we think there should be much more careful analysis of the likely short term impact of any reduction in public parking spaces particularly in the planning phase of new development proposals. There should be a less formulaic approach to considering the parking implications of particular development proposals.
The priority use for this off-street public parking should be visitors to the city particularly those requiring long term parking.
Should the pricing strategy for this retained and improved parking be altered in any way to target different users?
Pricing should encourage overnight visitors to the city in preference to day trippers
There is already considerable congestion on radial routes into Bath and within the City Centre and work undertaken by the Council has shown that the ability to accommodate further traffic growth is very limited. Mindful of the development aspirations within the Enterprise Area to bring more investment and jobs into Bath, what is your view on the degree to which measures in the Parking Strategy should look to control car use for journeys into the City Centre for employment, shopping and other purposes? In particular:
The emerging Placemaking Plan, Districtwide, page 225, includes more restrictive parking standards for new non-residential development in Bath. In addition to these new standards, what other measures would you consider necessary or desirable to help support these?
The policy of having hotel developments in the city centre with no parking provision is based on the demonstrably false hypothesis that hotel guest will therefore not use their cars when travelling to this city. The standard proposed in the placemaking plan is an improvement on this but we think that a much less formulaic approach is required. The realistic parking implications of individual development proposal need to be analysed and addressed properly.
The emerging Placemaking Plan makes provision for the potential future expansion of existing Park and Ride sites and the creation of a new Park and Ride site to the East of Bath. What other measures, would you consider necessary or desirable to greater encourage use of Park and Ride?
The P&Rs should operate later,7 days a week, and with secure overnight parking. That would enable their use by evening visitors and those staying overnight, who cannot currently use them.
Pricing should be reviewed to ensure that under most circumstances it will be cheaper to use the P&R than come into the city centre.
Use of P&Rs could be further diversified and expanded to mean new demands created by developments and implement best practice for around the UK.
Do you support the principle of higher charges for central area parking as part of a package of measures to help manage traffic within Bath?
Yes, providing that:
· P&R facilities and prices are adjusted to make them as attractive as possible
· That pricing encourages off street over on street parking
· That there is better enforcement of illegal parking
· That resident only parking on-street parking continues to be expanded
Do you support the principle of further reducing off-street public parking (beyond that envisaged in the Placemaking Plan) to help manage traffic within Bath?
No, our concern is pollution, particularly small particulates, and its reduction in the short term. Pollution is damaging people health now and we need to be implementing changes to traffic management without further delay.
One of the factors that increase pollution in the city centre is people driving around the city seeking somewhere to park. While we applaud the plans to build more out of town parking, we also recognise that people will still need drive their cars into the city for the foreseeable future. Indeed, local businesses have repeatedly said that Baths economic viability requires vehicular access to the commercial heart of the city.
We, therefore, believe that it is important to have better planning for what to do with vehicles coming into the city that need to park. We would, therefore, like to see:
· A more realistic assessment of parking capacity needed in the city centre. Off street parking standards proposed in the Placemaking Plan are highly restrictive and should only be implemented if public transport is adequately expanded and developed to provide a satisfactory alternative to the use of the car.
· An end to granting planning consent to hotel developments which have no parking provision
· A proper strategy for managing coaches visiting the city
· A firm principle that residential parking spaces cannot be removed without a plan to provide additional capacity elsewhere
· That on street parking should be primarily for residents’ use but with clear allocation of bays that businesses can use for their customer loading and collecting
Could the level of parking retained within the Enterprise Area be reduced from 500 in order to support the overarching policy of reducing traffic within the city centre?
No. it will just lead to more pollution, congestion and illegal parking because the public transport infrastructure is not and a far as we can see cannot be in place to reduce the traffic sufficiently in the timeframe being set for development of the Enterprise Area.
Do you think further expansion of the controlled parking zones will be necessary to discourage commuter on-street parking in areas surrounding the City Centre?
No comment
How well do you think the City currently caters for parking demands associated with major events such as the Christmas Market, Bath RFC matches etc. How could this be improved?
These events, which are increasingly frequent, further reinforce the need not think much more carefully about plans to reduce off street parking provision in the city. All these events create problems for residents seeking to park, leads to a huge increase in illegal parking and we suspect a spike in small particulate pollution.
Many of these events play an important role in the economic vitality of the city and poor parking provision and strategy are constantly limiting their success.
What are your views on the current provision for disabled parking, taxis or cycle parking within the City Centre?
Disabled parking provision does not seem to have a clear strategy. There are very under used dedicated spaces around the city and disabled badge holders parking on double yellow lines sometimes in very dangerous or disruptive places.
Taxis appear to park wherever they like without restriction. They often at night create unofficial taxi ranks at night which can be a source of considerable disturbance to local residents.
We have no particular observations about parking for pedal cycles. There are dedicated parking spaces for motorcycles in the city centre. Despite this more and more spaces designed for motor cars are now taken up by motor cyclists. We have even observed motorcycles parked on pavements which on Bath’s busy streets seems to be inviting accidents. The situation is made worse by the fact that as we understand it, and the BANEs website confirms, there is NO CHARGE levied on motorcycles occupying on street parking slots. Why not? Not only do motorcyclist use their privileged position to occupy more and more of the city’s limited on street parking places, often taking up a space designed to accommodate a car or van with just one motorcycle, but some of them put covers on their bikes and leave them for days, weeks and even months.
What role do you see for new technology in helping to manage parking within Bath?
New technology could play a role in reducing delays in leaving and entering parking facilities, directing people to the most appropriate parking quickly and efficiently and allowing more innovative charging strategies including higher charges for diesel engine cars.
Are there any other comments you would like to make about parking in Bath?
There is a real problem about the way parking permits are distributed and priced for non-residents. The limited on-street parking provision in the city should primarily be for permanent residents of the city with planned allocations for customer collections at local business. The practice of largely unregulated handing out of permits to B&B’s, holiday lets and student HMO’s and halls of residence should be reviewed as a matter of urgency.
There needs to be a better system for allowing people working at residential properties to be able to have appropriate parking accommodation.
There should be some provision for city centre residents to get preferential access to parking for visitors.
On street coach parking continues to be an issue which requires better planning and better enforcement.