Opinion : Pay and Display returns to the car parks of Wycombe – Hooray!

Isn’t it great to see the return of Pay and Display in the car parks of Wycombe.

My good self never did like the ‘big brother’ style ANPR camera technology that kept watch over the town’s car parks until a few weeks ago.

A few days ago it seemed like a good idea to extend my regular lunchtime walk around Wycombe town centre to take a look at the new parking arrangements for my self.

Heading up to Desborough Road yours humble servant was soon in the vicinity of the George Street car park.

I was surprised how many cars there were there, indeed the car park was almost full with just a couple of spaces left.

Where will all the cars park if the powers that be obliterate the George Street car park as is proposed under the development plans for that part of town?

Making my way back to town I happened to pass a parking attendant who was in the process of sticking a parking ticket on the windscreen of a vehicle that was parked beside the road.

However all the time that yours truly was in proximity of the car park I didn’t see a single parking attendant checking the Pay and Display tickets on the windscreens of the vehicles in any of the car parks that your humble servant visited.

Perhaps the town needs more parking attendants to enforce the parking regulations?

In my opinion it would be an extremely good idea if the parking attendants had their remit expanded to cover other misdemeanours than people who fail to pay for their parking.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a number that a home owner in the residential parts of the town could call and a mobile parking attendant could come out and deal with all manner of parking issues from cars parked on the pavement, vehicles left blocking driveways, untaxed vehicles and abandoned vehicles too?

It’s all very well enforcing traffic regulations in the town centre but sadly the suburbs of the town are just left for drivers to do as they wish.

Personally my good self would like to see more yellow lines painted on residential streets to stop motorists parking beside the road and on the pavement.

If a house has a driveway then there should be yellow lines outside as in my opinion there is no need for vehicles to be parked on the road outside indeed it’s shire laziness to not put ones car into the drive.

Instead of having parking attendants walking around the town centre hunting for a motorist who failed to pay 50p for 30 minutes parking how about giving the attendants bicycles so they can go after the motorists who block pavements in the residential areas of town?

Sadly I fear that parking is a money making exercise and making sure that 50p is paid is more important than making sure the pavements are clear for mothers pushing prams to pass by safely.

What do you think?

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