Opinion : Does the parking in Marlow town centre really need changing?

Oh dear. It seems the great and good are looking to make unnecessary changes to the parking arrangements in Marlow town centre.

According to an article that appeared in the news section of this site a few days ago a ‘Consultation [is] to be held on changes to parking in Marlow town centre‘.

It seems the changes being consulted on will result in a rearrangement of the parking bays in the town centre to provide around 30 additional short-term parking spaces. There may also be funding for better enforcement which will provide a much greater turnover of parking in the key retail centre.

I must admit that recently my good self has been a semi-frequent visitor to Marlow. Yes, I’ve trundled down Clay Lane in my trusty motor, nipped down the B482 into Marlow and parked in the Riley Road car park (pictured above).

Therefore my good self has experienced the challenges in finding a parking space in Marlow. So what about the changes floated in the consultation?

Well, providing thirty additional short-term parking spaces is a futile response. Marlow needs far more than thirty extra spaces! As for providing better parking enforcement, that’s hardly likely to have much impact on the shortage of parking spaces.

I fear the solutions provided by the consultation are solving the symptoms but failing to tackle the underlying causes.

To get to the root of the matter we must ask the question ‘Why is there a shortage of parking spaces in Marlow?’.

The answer is simple, it’s because there are more people visiting the town than there are parking spaces. So next we must ask the question ‘Why are so many people visiting Marlow?’.

Well, yours truly can answer that quite easily by telling you why I go there myself. It’s because Marlow is a nice town with excellent shops that sell good quality products and where decent law abiding people can go shopping without fear of crime, being attacked, meeting drunken yobbos or being knocked over by teenagers on skateboards. In Marlow there are no vagrants, beggars or gentlemen of the road knocking out tunes on harmonicas at the merest sight of a passer by.

Like a good number of people yours truly visits Marlow because the yobs have been allowed to take over and spoil Wycombe town centre.

So here’s my solution to the parking problems of Marlow. Firstly don’t change anything in Marlow, oh no… Marlow is perfect just as it is.

Instead sort the dreadful problems that blight Wycombe then the people of Wycombe, like my good self, would not need to go to Marlow to do our shopping as we would feel safe in our own town. This would mean more parking spaces for the Marlovians in their own lovely town.

I fear Marlow is about to be decimated by the powers that be with silly and unnecessary changes simply because the problems in Wycombe are driving people to travel to other towns to do their shopping.

The powers that be do not need to tinker with parking arrangements in Marlow, instead the law enforcement authorities need to crack down on the scum bags running amok in Wycombe.

So, in brief, solving the parking problems in Marlow is easy. Just sort the crime and disorder problems in Wycombe and the parking in Marlow will sort itself.

What do you think?

My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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