Parking Charges

[Monsta®]

see there going to introduce parking charges! b@st@rds

[Guest mrsvic]

see there going to introduce parking charges! b@st@rds

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo................

[Cympil]

see there going to introduce parking charges! b@st@rds

Where are they doing that?

[Monsta®]

Where are they doing that?

across northumberland including bedlington! so when you visit tesco's it will probably cost you 50p to park.

a bet that car park soon empties!

[Andy Brown]

across northumberland including bedlington! so when you visit tesco's it will probably cost you 50p to park.

a bet that car park soon empties!

The cash it generates will/should be used to pay for wardens to clamp the lazy b****rds who park in the disabled bay in the Market Place disabled bay (who aren't disabled), and the ignorant twits who park on the crossing next to the newsagents.

[Dr Pit]

see there going to introduce parking charges! b@st@rds

that should just about finish off some allready struggling businesses in Bedlington.

short sighted fools that they are.

[Monsta®]

it was inevitable every where you go you have to pay!

[mercuryg]

it was inevitable every where you go you have to pay!

No you don't.

[Monsta®]

No you don't.

tell you get out!

[Andy Millne]

Whilst I am against the parking charges don't forget we have two monstrous under utilised free car parks behind the front street, are these also to be part of the new charging scheme?

[Neil]

that'll finish us off shopping in tescos every saturday, flaming rip off and I'm sure Tesco will have something to say about it.

Asda here we come.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Yesterday just managed to park behind post office, those car parks were full, today the old Presto's car park is crammed. I wonder what they will be like when charges are introduced?

Course Tesco's bought the large car park at the back of their place, or what will be the front enterance once work starts and finishes, and a 2 hour free usage is talked about. One thing for sure clampers are going to be much in evidence soon!!!!

The reason given by esteemed councillors for the change, well parking is charged in other parts of the county........

I never thought I would live to say it but come back WDC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andy Millne]

More info on the proposed parking charges...

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/2009/07/bedlington-car-parking-review/

[Guest mrsvic]

More info on the proposed parking charges...

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/2009/07/bedlington-car-parking-review/

No question on should there be charges, but more on how much and what the money gets spent on... I predict Tesco getting a free re-tarmac before anyone else...

Took advantage of the comments box to suggest that with recessions and the internet, local businesses do not need another barrier to trade... not that they will even read it. Grrrrr.

[Andy Millne]

http://gizmodo.com/5327276/insecure-electronic-parking-meters-can-be-hacked-for-infinite-money

There may be hope yet

[Merlin]

that'll finish us off shopping in tescos every saturday, flaming rip off and I'm sure Tesco will have something to say about it.

Asda here we come.

You forgetting something the B%^$£&*S control Ashington and Blyth don't think that their car parks will escape.just look at Morpeth!!!!

[Andy Millne]

You forgetting something the B%^$£&*S control Ashington and Blyth don't think that their car parks will escape.just look at Morpeth!!!!

Except the car park at Asda in Blyth is privately owned.

[Monsta®]

Except the car park at Asda in Blyth is privately owned.

so is nettos but that wont stop them!

[Merlin]

Except the car park at Asda in Blyth is privately owned.

Are the car parks in Morprth Morrisons and the other one I think its Lidl(probably wrong) privatly owned?

[Stephen]

The Town Council will be discussing what response to make to the County Council questionnaire on car parking at the next meeting:

6pm on Thursday 10 September at the Salvation Army Hall

[Ms Hair]

How about they questionnaire the Bedlington public? Or would that be too sensible?

It's a proposterous idea. Bedlington truly will be a ghost town. I'm sure many of the people who work in the businesses on the front street use the car park. Parking charges suggest a town that is doing well economically. They truly must want to see Bedlington right down the swanney. Idiots.

If it comes through I suggest we actually try to do something about it. Petition/stop using tescos etc

[Blank]

When I was in Ashington a week or two ago, there were a couple of people with petitions asking the public and business owners to sign against parking charges.

They left extra petition sheets in a lot of the shops, hoping that customers might sign them too.

Haven't been up the front street in ages, so I'm not sure if anything like this has been happening there. I did sign the petition in Ashington though, although I wonder if it will have any effect on the final desicion?

[Malcolm Robinson]

Blank,

Petition organised and handed out to all local Bedders shop keepers!

These parking charges are just a dumb idea especially for places like Bedlington which have always had distressed economic areas. County seem intent on applying them to Wansbeck and Blyth alike but interesting letter in NPL recently about the possible connection between application time and election of MP! Netto and Tesco, if it ever gets built the way it said, will provide free parking spaces but only for their customers. In Tesco's case a 2 hour limit has been cited and how it will be policed is anyone's guess.

It is a well thought out plan if the end result is to have all independent businesses in the town closed. They will soon have the largest national retailer to compete against, as well as one of the cheaper brands, and council will tie their hands behind their backs by imposing a tax on coming into Bedlington to use the facilities they offer whilst being unable to level the playing field by imposing charges on the big boys. It is short sighted, spiteful and vindictive and no one as yet has given a valid reason for implementing parking charges in Bedlington.

Stephen,

Be good to hear what you think this re-org is rolling out like, if this is the 'right' Stephen I am thinking about?

[Stephen]

Malcolm, yes I'm that Stephen!

The car parking issue is probably the first of many inevitable consequences of a unitary county, with some former districts thinking the rules should be the same for all now there is one council. I think the county needs to nip it in the bud right now and make it clear they won't try to be one size fits all. As for the parishes, it's too early to say. We are still setting up, a bit too slowly for my liking but I hope we can start making a difference from year one.

West Bedlington Town Council by the way decided to oppose car parking charges on the folowing grounds:

we would have to install ticket machines at great expense

it would create a greater problem of illegal and unsafe parking which would require extra policing again at extra expense

if the parking charges were high enough to pay for themselves or even make a profit, it would destroy businesses in the town

the negative effect of destroying business in the town would far outweigh any revenue the scheme could raise

Morpeth Chamber of Trade who suggested this have claimed that the southeast has better public transport, but unlike Morpeth, Berwick and Hexham we have no railway station

the rest of the county are also able to generate more car parking income from tourists than we are

Since the chairman of the Town Council is also a member of the County leadership team I am optimistic that the charges won't happen, but people should keep up the pressure until the decision has been taken.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Stephen,

Good to see some things don't change, clear concise conversation from an involved politico, refreshing change!

As for these parking charges, as I said, I have yet to hear one valid reason for implementing them other than 'Other parts of the county have them so we must roll them out across the whole authority'. That is an excuse not a reasoned argument for and in Bedlington's case utter madness. As well as an impact onto the already burgeoned business community there is also the fact that the car using general public will have to suffer what will be seen as another stealth tax on their normal day to day activities. I am naive enough to think a council's job is to work with all sections of a community to make lives easier not harder.

This Parish/Town council set up looks to be a lost opportunity to me. County is far too ungainly and top heavy now with not necessarily the right people in the right jobs! Having lost more representative voices than we retained, and let's not forget how Bedlingtonshire faired with almost half the elected make up of WDC, this reduced presence in a greater arena will undoubtedly mean even less heed given to the needs of this part of the county. (Maybe the parking charge scenario will be a watershed or an example?) With Parish councils loosing all semblance of control over major departments within local government what exactly is their point? Splitting Bedlingtonshire up into a myriad of parish boundaries is a mistake as it has reduced an already feeble voice into nothingness! We should have reinvented BUDC and reinstated it into the council offices on Front Street and given it control over most if not all aspects of local governance within its boundary. County could have retained the major services, fire, education, health etc, and we could have contracted them for any ancillary services as needed. Being dictated to from a room in the Ivory towers in Ashington could well end up an infinitely better proposition than what is happening now as we don't really even know where to throw the stones!