Talk to your County Councillor Janet Godden or your District Councillor (me) at our sessions, held every other month. We’re planning to hold one near you!
Tues 10 Jan 2012, 6-7pm, WI on North Hinksey Lane
Tues 13 Mar 2012, 6-7pm, Seacourt Road Rooms
Tues 8 May 2012, 6-7pm, venue tba
In the run-up to each session, we’ll deliver flyers and residents’ surveys to homes nearby.
Please drop in!
This was circulated to local councillors today. When it says ‘towns’ it particularly refers to Abingdon, Faringdon and Wantage. Parking at West Way Shopping Centre in Botley is already free. There’s a link at the bottom to more information.
A consultation has been launched on proposals to changes to council parking in the Vale of White Horse District Council area.
Residents, businesses and visitors to the area are being given the chance to have their say on plans that could see a free period of two hours being introduced to help boost the local economy in the Vale’s towns.
Councillor Matthew Barber, leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “The big change being proposed is the two hours of free parking – this has the potential to benefit both residents and businesses in the area’s towns.
“If things go to plan we will be able to implement the changes by the start of December which will be great news for anyone shopping or doing business in the run-up to Christmas.
“For many people two hours is enough to go shopping or attend appointments. Very few places in the UK are this generous, but we need to know what people locally think.
“There are also some other detailed changes being proposed that are needed to help us run the car parks efficiently but, again, we are asking for people’s views before anything is decided.”
The 21 day consultation period has now begun.
To find out more about the proposed changes and to submit your views visit www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/haveyoursay, email carparks@southandvale.gov.uk or you can view the documents at White Horse District Council’s offices, Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3JE or phone 01235 547665.
Many residents want to know about planning applications under consideration for properties in their area.
From today, I’ll post planning application information when I receive it.
There’s a spearate page for Planning Applications. In the cntre column, under What’s Inside, see Planning Applications.
If you have comments or objections to what is being planned, they must be received by the Vale within that period. More info on how to submit comments is very clearly displayed on the Vale website (using the link inside each area).
I’ll review these Planning Applications postings periodically and take them down after the decision has been made by the Vale Planning department.
Please let me know if you’d like to see anything else.
After less than 5 minutes of debate and consideration of the complexities of financing this scheme, the 5 conservative members of the Vale cabinet decided to provide free 2hr car parking for well-off car drivers who want to park in Abingdon town centre.This was despite a strong recommendation from the financial officers that the scheme not be adopted.
They also decided to raise residents’ parking permit fees, commuters’ permit fees, and fees to park longer than 2 hours.
But the main source of funding for this £1,000,000 will be the new homes bonus reserves. These are the funds paid to the Vale by large developers to support and enhance the community infrastructure where they are building swathes of new homes.
So, no new playgounds, no youth centres, no community halls for over-populated neighbourhoods in exchange for the well-off car drivers having 2 hours of free parking while they shop.
I find this annoying, to say the least.
It’s too late to convince the Tories not to do it. All we can do is ask the hard questions:
Email, write, or ring them up. Let them know how you feel about this.
I wrote a letter to the Vale of White Horse cabinet, urging them to reconsider their plans for free car parking in Abingdon.
Here’s what I said:
Dear Matthew,
I’m writing to members of the VoWH Cabinet to encourage you to decide against free car parking in Abingdon.
I represent the people of North Hinksey & Wytham ward. We’re about as remote from Abingdon as can be, and few of us ever venture into Abingdon town centre. As a result, this proposal offers us no benefits, and will probably result in cuts to services that DO affect us, to offset the income lost from car parking charges. For example, discontinuing Unvaled to save some money — that newsletter is delivered to every household in the Vale — it benefits everyone!
I read the recently published report where the financial officer “strongly recommends against” the proposed free parking, for several reasons. These reasons alone support the fiscally responsible decision to abandon the proposed free parking for Abingdon.
If there is no evidence that free car parking improves footfall in town centres, and there is no fiscally responsible plan to make up for the lost income (approx £1,000,000 over the term of this council), and it benefits only a few residents (those who drive their cars into Abingdon), I can’t see the case for proceeding with this.
Taking action that is opposed to the financial officer’s strong recommendation against this proposal is dangerous to our finances, and will damage the reputation of your Conservative legacy in the Vale. It benefits a small group, by small amounts of money, but represents a very large ongoing expense in these times of central cuts to council income streams.
Please don’t do it. Don’t risk your legacy by taking a first big decision based on mis-guided ideas that benefit a few, cost too much and won’t help in the longer term.
Cllr Debby Hallett
www.debbyhallett.mycouncillor.org.uk
01865 435794
Take a few minutes and send your thoughts to the Vale Cabinet. There emails are in the post linked to in Related Reading, just below.
Related reading: Free Car Parking – recommend against