Proposed removal of free parking in Whitstable High-street has Councillors up in arms

Councillors and business owners alike came together to fight Canterbury Council’s proposed removal of free parking in Whitstable high street during this week’s community forum.

Wednesday’s Whitstable forum had many complaints from the public about the council’s new parking plan. The main issue raised by residents was the removal of free parking along the Whitstable high street on weekday mornings. Currently, the high-street offers free parking from the hours of 8:30 am-10:00 am. This was originally put in place to ease congestion and pollution during school drop off as three schools are located in the centre of Whitstable.

Councillor Ashley Clark said that the proposals were too data-led and didn’t consider the consequence of the change. Cllr Clark said, “what they’ve got in data they lack in judgement.” He went on to say that the proposal should be “kicked into the long grass.”

Cllr Clark who originally helped to implement the hour and a half free parking said that the plan was short-sighted. “This has gone out to consultation completely and utterly needlessly because anyone with half a brain knows that this is of a direct benefit for the people of this town.” Cllr Clark said.

Business owners were also concerned about the proposal and the impact that it could have on local businesses. Alison Clarke, co-owner of Toast – a business in Tankerton and Herne Bay – said, “the free parking in the morning is a great time for traders.” Mrs Clarke went on to say that businesses in the area get up to 20% of their daily business during that hour and a half window going on to say, “it is vital for this community and this high street’s survival.”

Mrs Clarke continued to say that although the council do offer initiatives such as Shop by the Sea, not enough is being done to support local business with the ongoing threat of retail parks which offer free parking. “There should be more done to help businesses with set up costs. Ever-rising rents from landlords are pushing some businesses to close down which is becoming a real issue in the area.” Mrs Clark said.

The councillors all voted in favour, bar one abstained vote, to show the view of the forum was against the change when taken forward to be discussed further in future council meetings.

Whitstable is one of the three community forum meetings this week which have discussed the proposed parking changes. Both the Herne Bay and Canterbury forums have also opposed various sections of the proposals such as the removal of Herne Bay’s active life centre providing free parking for users and Canterbury’s expansion of the park and ride car park.

Councillors at all three forums have criticised the council-commissioned Steer report which proposed the parking changes. Confusion has surrounded the main purpose of the report. It is unclear as to whether it was in order to help account for the council’s budget shortfall or whether it was to tackle environmental issues.

During the forum Councillor, Chris Cornell said that if the Steer report was a piece of academic research he would fail it due to a lack of information for the report to be based on. Cllr Cornell went on to say that if the council wished to use a report to back up proposals it would need to “come with better game than this.”

Cllr Clark also suggested an extension of the free parking to also account for after school pick up from 2:45 pm-3:45 pm. Although it was also pointed out that the parking capacity around that time is around 50-60% compared with 10-13% in the mornings and this could cause further issues with funding.

The council parking proposals went to public consultation in early December and ended after the first week of January. The opinions of the forums will be taken to the Regeneration and Property committee next week on Thursday at the Guild Hall in St Peter’s Place Canterbury after a final rural forum meeting on Monday.