Opinion : Why not expand Wycombe’s Special Parking Area to the whole town?
After pot holes the next biggest problem the modern day motorist faces is that of parking.
There is nothing worse than going to town only to find there are no parking spaces near to the shop you want to visit.
Of course here in Wycombe since the pedestrianisation of the High Street and the coming of the dreadful Masterplaning to our streets the only hope of parking your car is in a multistory car park.
Residential areas close to Wycombe town centre are part of a Special Parking Area (SPA) where roads are yellow lined and charges apply to park outside houses.
However on the residential areas further from the town centre anything goes when it comes to parking. Park on the grass verges, pavements, across peoples driveways and on yellow lines. Leave your car where you like and nothing will be done.
The other day an article appeared in the news section of this website headlined ‘New Parking Delivery Plan agreed to manage parking on the streets of Buckinghamshire‘.
It seems there is to be a review of parking on the streets of Buckinghamshire. Apparently the news item on the new Parking Delivery plan said :
‘The Parking Delivery Plan envisages an annual review of parking charges, revisions to resident permit eligibility criteria, curfew controls to tackle anti social parking, touch enforcement against Blue Badge misuse and options for essential vehicle permits for businesses.‘
‘The point of the new plan is that the County Council’s parking management must break even.‘
Well, if they want parking to break even why not expand the Special Parking Area to cover the whole of Wycombe including even the outer most residential areas?
In my opinion all roads in all residential areas of Wycombe should be yellow lined to stop people parking outside in the street, after all most houses have driveways but the owners are too lazy to use them.
In the town centre parking should be made easier. Why not let cars go down the High Street once more and park close to the shops? Rip up the narrow Masterplanned roads to make driving easier and, where feasible, let motorists park beside the road.
My good self thinks that parking beside the road in Wycombe town centre should be free. That way there would be no need to send traffic wardens around the roads to make sure the vehicles are displaying pay and display parking tickets.
Yellow lines actually save money because its blatantly clear that a vehicle should not be parked there. The traffic wardens can just issue a ticket and move on to the next obviously illegally parked vehicle.
Rolling out the SPA to the whole of Wycombe, with every residential road yellow lined, would be a great improvement for many residents.
Sadly yours truly fears it’s unlikely to happen and the great parking nuisance will be with us for years to come.
What do you think?
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