There has always been inadequate provision for residents parking in the centre of Bath and city centre residents do not enjoy the privilege accorded to other Bath residents of having visitors permits.
This already inadequate provision has been further eroded by the unjustifiable practice of selling quantities of on-street parking permits to hotels and B&Bs for onward sale, often at a substantial markup, to their guests.
Residents on-street parking spaces are regularly taken away from residents and allocated to film companies and developers, in the latter case sometimes for years. While BANES often receives substantial compensation for its loss of parking revenues little of no thought is ever given to compensating residents’ for their loss of amenity.
Motorcyclist are allowed to take up car parking spaces without charge and we have seen a recent example where the council has taken away parking spaces from car users and dedicated their use to motorbikes.
The fashion for pedestrianisation schemes has removed further parking without any consideration for residential amenity or access.
Traffic schemes, carried out under Covid emergency legislation, have further reduced residents’ parking and the suspicion must be that some of these schemes will become permanent. When plans for electric charging points are rolled out it is not clear that the bays are taken out of commission for non-electric vehicle will reflect the reality that electric cars and plug-in hybrids will not be viable options for the majority of Bath residents for the foreseeable future.