RESIDENTS have announced their support for a proposed permit parking scheme.
As reported in the Mirror last week, Surrey County Council has started an "informal" consultation with people living in the Redstone Hill area of Redhill to establish levels of support for the proposal.
The consultation follows concerns expressed to the council about non-residents using the nearby railway station parking up there for the day.
The permit scheme aims to help residents and their visitors find somewhere to park on weekdays between 8am and 6.30pm. During those times only vehicles displaying a valid resident or visitor permit would be allowed to park in the zones or bays.
This would mean commuters would no longer be able to park in roads such as Redstone Manor and Cavendish Gardens without receiving a fine.
After a private meeting in the Home Cottage pub in Redhill on Monday, Redstone Manor resident John Capon issued a statement on behalf of a 25-strong group of residents.
He said: "Residents of Redstone Manor, Redhill, are keen to implement permit parking in their road to eliminate day-long parking by non-residents which they say is both inconvenient and dangerous."
A permit would not guarantee a space, however, and there are associated costs – £50 for the first permit issued to a household and £75 for each subsequent one. Guest passes would cost residents £2 per day and there would be an allowance of 120 per household per year. Surrey County Council says this would cover the costs of the scheme.
Mr Capon said Jonathan Essex, a county councillor for the area, told the meeting that the two options available were "curfew parking", where parking is prohibited between certain hours during the day, or resident permit parking, which allows parking at certain times only to cars displaying a resident or visitor permit.
Mr Capon said objections were raised to both options: curfew parking because it would mean residents might be penalised and it had proved to be ineffective in some cases, and permit parking because of its cost and limitations on the number of visitor permits available.
However, the majority were in favour of weekday permit parking, but with a duration of one hour between 10am and 11am rather than the council's proposed 8am to .30pm.
It was also suggested a campaign could be launched to ask that the permits be free for residents.
The council will analyse all feedback once the consultation closes on October 10.
To complete the online survey go to http://tinyurl.com/ naurmvb
