Parking charges plan for Broomhall

Parking charges plan for streets


Published Date: 20 January 2009
By Richard Marsden
CHARGES are to be introduced for on-street spaces in Broomhall in Sheffield after concern from residents about staff and visitors to the universities and hospitals using the suburb as a car park.
Broomhall Permit Parking Scheme was launched in 2004, covering streets between Ecclesall Road, Hanover Way, Glossop Road, Clarkehouse Road and Southgrove Road.

It provided a mixture of residents-only bays and other spaces subject to a four-hour waiting limit, to cut the number of people from outside the area coming in and parking there all day.

When Sheffield Council surveyed residents as part of review of the scheme, officers found 54 per cent of respondents thought it had lessened parking problems overall. But, on several streets, residents felt there were still people leaving their cars too long and flouting the restrictions.

Barry Cummings, who lives in the area, said: "Because our area was the first on the edge of the city centre to have a parking permit scheme, it was a soft one, whereas more recent ones have been tougher, with meters for non-residents' parking.

"People are parking in our area who used to leave their cars elsewhere but can't anymore. We object to the area outside our homes being used as a car park for the hospital.

"Sometimes, after four hours, they'll even swap spaces with each other so they can stay without technically breaking the restrictions. So do students, so do lecturers."

Sheffield Council's city centre, south and east planning board yesterday voted to allow charges to be brought in – which will happen if the council successfully applies for a traffic regulation order.

Then 38 pay and display machines would be installed covering spaces on Broomgrove Road, Clarkegrove Road, Southgrove Road, Broomhall Road, Victoria Road, Collegiate Crescent, Park Lane, Wilkinson Street and Brunswick Street.

A total of 302 spaces would be made pay and display, with a maximum waiting time of four hours, while the number of free limited waiting spaces would drop from 542 to 232.

The first six months of operation would be monitored and more streets made pay and display if commuters then started using other areas of Broomhall where overstaying is not currently a problem.

Minor changes would be made to the on-street spaces, creating nine more residents-only bays.

But plans for a two-bay evening taxi rank on Collegiate Crescent have been dropped.

Reserved bays in Broomhall are in the pipeline for an extension of the city's car club but these were not included in the proposals yesterday. They will be considered once a review into the neighbouring Sharrow Vale scheme happens in six months.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Parking-charges-plan-for-streets.4892221.jp

I like this line

When Sheffield Council surveyed residents as part of review of the scheme, officers found 54 per cent of respondents thought it had lessened parking problems overall. But, on several streets, residents felt there were still people leaving their cars too long and flouting the restrictions.

It shows the council cares about the views of the residents, NOT!!!

The only thing swaying the decission is the money, and lots of it from little old gents accompanying their little old ladys to the 'Osplcal.

More than the parking charges I'd be more interested in finding why they drpped the idea of the two space taxi rank on Collegiate Crescent?

Taxis manage perfectly well around that area anyway