Parking Meters Have Arrived In Weston-super-Mare

Despite opposition from just everyone in Weston-super-Mare, from residents to local businesses, North Somerset Council has now inflicted parking meters on the town.

Councillor Elfan Ap Rees claims the scheme is a success. He says that 800 parking tickets were sold on the first day that the parking meters were operational. This shows that he really does not have a clue about what goes on in Weston-super-Mare. The streets are deserted. The shops are all reporting slower trade.

I spoke to someone who works in the Tesco Express on the Boulevard who said that they’d seen slower trade. Some people reading this might think that’s a good thing because there’s a perception that Tesco is evil. But the people that aren’t shopping in Tesco Express aren’t getting their shopping from local greengrocers and butchers instead. They’re going to the main Tesco because they know they can park there.

Liberal Democrat council member Mike Bell is doing the town proud by continuing to fight against the parking meters, and there is also a Facebook group which, at the time of writing, has 125 extremely vocal members.

Let’s hope that he can talk sense into the council before Weston-super-Mare becomes a ghost town.

Related articles

• On-street parking
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• Weston’s pay-to-park scheme in force
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• Parking Meters Coming In November
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• On-Street Parking Charges In Weston-super-Mare
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Parking Meters Coming In November

Despite valiant attempts by Liberal Democrat members of North Somerset Council, and perhaps more importantly, the fact that Weston-super-Mare residents do not want yet more parking restrictions, the Conservative members of North Somerset Council have got their way. Parking meters are being installed in Weston-super-Mare town centre and will be here by November.

How this will help retailers in the town is anyone’s guess. They could be forgiven for wondering whether the businesses on the retail parks on the edge of the town had been involved in a little spot of bribery with the council.

Thankfully, an investment in the often horrendously congested M5 Junction 21 has been approved – helped, no doubt, by the fact that a property developer wants to build lots more houses around the junction. Good news for the residents of Weston-super-Mare who will be able to do their shopping in the Mall at Cribbs Causeway without having to queue for too long to leave the town, but not exactly great news for our local shops.

Where is Cool Hand Luke when you need him?

Related articles

• Weston-super-Mare street parking charges to start in November
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• On-Street Parking Charges In Weston-super-Mare
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• On-street parking in Weston-super-Mare
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• Weston-super-Mare M5 junction 21 plans announced
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Shuttle Bus Service

So, Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Bell thinks it’d be a good idea for the council to subsidise a shuttle bus service to run around the town centre. Is he not aware that there are already bus services in the town?

I’m all in favour of having as many facilities as possible, but this seems to me to be something that we can’t afford, and something that isn’t really needed. Isn’t it strange that the council seems to have money in the pot for this, and can even find the £800,000 that it has earmarked for the demolition of the Tropicana. Where is all of this money coming from?

One of the main reasons Mike Bell is suggesting that we need his proposed shuttle bus service is to deliver people to businesses in the new Dolphin Square development. If it’s decided that we need a shuttle bus service to deliver people to Dolphin Square, surely the businesses in Dolphin Square should be subsidising it rather than the council? After all, they will be the ones benefiting from the proposed service.

Let’s hope our council doesn’t decide to waste our money on this when it debates Mike Bell’s shuttle bus service proposal on 10th September.

Related articles

• New shuttle bus service for town?
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On-Street Parking Charges In Weston-super-Mare

North Somerset Council has decided to implement proposals to charge for on-street parking in Weston-super-Mare. This decision was taken at the end of July and the scheme is due to come into force on 1st October.

The scheme calls for in the introduction of parking meters on 27 streets. The charges being imposed are intended to encourage short, rather than long stay parking:

• 20p for a 20 minutes
• £1.00 for one hour
• £2.40 for two hours

Residents will be offered parking permits for £31.00/year. To discourage multi-car ownership, a second permit will cost £62.00/year.

North Somerset Council’s Tony Lake said: “It will actually encourage people to come to shop in Weston …”

It is difficult to see how charging people to park would have that effect, when parking is free at the retail park on the edge of the town, and the Mall at Cribbs Causeway is only a short trip up the M5.

Mike Bell, leader of North Somerset Council’s opposition Liberal Democrat party, reacted by saying that, “Weston residents are being well and truly stitched up.” He added that he believes that the scheme was being introduced to, “… line Town Hall coffers, which many believe was the plan all along.”

The Liberal Democrats challenged the decision to implement the on-street parking scheme by calling it in, which meant that the scheme could not proceed until there had been further debate on it. However, North Somerset Council has decided to go ahead with the scheme anyway.

What we have here is a situation where:

• local people oppose the parking proposals
• local businesses oppose the parking proposals
• half the council opposes the parking proposals

…and yet North Somerset Council’s reaction to this is to proceed with the proposals and ignore any request for further debate on the issue.

There is no evidence to suggest that the restrictions being applied to on-street parking are in any way connected to the new 381-space car park on Carlton Street that forms part of the Dolphin Square redevelopment. And even though Mike Bell believes these parking charges are being introduced as a way to raise money from residents who will soon have no choice other than to buy an annual permit to park their cars outside their houses, there is no evidence to support that, either.

All we do know is that the scheme is going to make it more expensive for residents in Weston-super-Mare if they don’t have their own off-street parking. It could also result in the elderly or disabled not being able to park outside their own homes and facing a long walk to and from their cars. And anyone planning to visit anyone living in Weston-super-Mare town centre is going to struggle if they visit by car.

Weston-super-Mare does have a parking problem. But the reason for this is not that we have a lack of parking meters. It is because the council has failed to make adequate provision in terms off-street parking spaces, and the spaces that we have are hideously expensive.

And in any case, if we genuinely want to solve the problem of traffic and parking in Weston-super-Mare town centre, surely including a Park and Ride service as part of the improvements that about to be made to the motorway junction would have been a better idea than simply restricting the town centre parking spaces even further?

On-street parking charges for Weston-super-Mare?

Related articles

• On-street parking in Weston-super-Mare
  (consult.n-somerset.gov.uk)
• Weston-super-Mare street parking charges set for October
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• Weston-super-Mare M5 junction 21 plans announced
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Rail Travel – Response From Elfan Ap Rees

Elfan Ap Rees has responded to the comments I made yesterday about rail travel. Impressively, his reply arrived at 9:13am, despite the fact that I had only emailed him at midnight.

Having said that, I still think he’s missing the point. Sure, it’d be lovely if we could travel straight to London without having to change trains at Bristol Temple Meads, but the fact remains that the biggest problem facing commuters in Weston-super-Mare is that there simply aren’t enough carriages on the trains during peak periods.

Anyway, I am reproducing the email here in its entirety so you can make your own mind up.

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Thank you for allowing me to comment.

First I would take issue with your title. There is a lot RIGHT with Weston-super-Mare, witness the decision of Knightstone Housing to build their new HQ close to Worle Parkway. This is the biggest office project anywhere in the southwest at present (even including Bristol) and one reason they chose Weston was because of rail access. Developers now building at Weston Gateway, Locking Parklands and Dolphin Square all say Weston is on the cusp of new business growth, ahead of all the other towns in the region and we don’t need the DfT to knock this back by denying a through train service.

It is true that travellers to and from London can change at Temple Meads but in that event it can be quicker in overall journey time to drive to Bristol Parkway and catch a London train there … more traffic commuting!

Seriously if we are to be successful in attracting business to Weston and make the most of our offer, having the name as a destination in big letters at London Paddington and a direct connection has to be worth fighting for.

Extra carriages are already on the way, as are other rail and station improvements in the sub region but why should Weston get the short end of the stick. Bringing electrification to Bristol but not extending it to Weston means that we don’t get the benefit, yet we are supposed to be equal partners with the other three authorities.

Asking for a continuation of the existing service until such time as electrification is extended seems a small ask to me. What we need in Weston is more people shouting about what is right with the town, not criticising every attempt to move forward!

Cllr Elfan Ap Rees
Deputy Leader North Somerset Unitary Council

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Rail Travel

North Somerset Councillor Elfan Ap Rees, the executive member for highways and transport, must be more deluded than usual.

He genuinely seems to believe that the new 15-year Great Western franchise will result in harm to Weston-super-Mare. Specifically, he thinks changing trains at Bristol Temple Meads will be a deal breaker, and if people are forced to do this, they’ll decide to stay at home instead.

Really?

Here’s a thought. The trains from London terminate at London Paddington, and unless you’re a Peruvian bear foraging for marmalade, there’s very little to do at London Paddington. You need to change trains and hop onto the Tube to get to anywhere worth visiting.

I travel by train from the station at Weston-super-Mare regularly. Mostly I’m going to London or Bristol. Aside from the horrendous price – it’s close to £200 to get a return train ticket to London during the rush hour – the main problem is that generally, the train trying to carry people between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol Temple Meads attempts to fit several thousand people into two tiny carriages.

It’s like the old days, watching students attempting to break the world record for cramming as many people as possible into a Mini. Every commuter seems to have their own strategy to ensure they can get on the train so they don’t get stranded and have to wait for the next one. And even if they get onto a train, the chances of doing anything other than standing for the duration of the journey are minimal.

My challenge for Elfan Ap Rees: Rather than trying to make a name for yourself over something that really isn’t an issue, why not address something that actually is an issue? We don’t really care if we need to swap trains at Bristol Temple Meads, but it’d be nice if we had a few more carriages on the trains than we’ve got at the moment so there’s a chance of us actually getting to Bristol Temple Meads. Being as how you’re our representative, can you at least do this for us?

I should point out that I’ve emailed a link to this web page to Elfan Ap Rees and in the interest of fairness, whatever his response is will be posted here in its entirely. If he comments via WordPress, I’ll approve the comment without editing it. If he chooses to respond via email, I’ll cut and paste it here in its entirely without editing it to change the context. If he chooses not to respond, you can all draw your own conclusions.

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