Consultation starts on Resident Parking Schemes

Consultation starts this week on a draft policy covering on-street resident parking schemes in South Kesteven.

Residents groups, the police, Lincolnshire County Council Highways, town councils and other key partners are being asked for their views.

And this will be followed by a targeted questionnaire to residents in Stamford to find out if there is support for parking schemes in the town - the first in the district to be put forward to LCC.

SKDC Leader Linda Neal said the council has been working with specialists to look at resident parking in Stamford and a report is due back by the end of September.

Cllr Neal said: "They have been looking at defined scheme areas and the opportunities for on street parking schemes and hopefully their report will provide us with sufficient information and justification to be able to instigate resident parking schemes with the co-operation of Lincolnshire County Council for each of the areas.

"We also want to talk to residents to establish the level of support within each area. This will mean asking questions like how many vehicles there are at individual properties, if they are normally parked on or off the street, and what level of difficulty they experience parking close to their home.

"Once we have all this feedback, and found out if there is more than 50 per cent backing for each of the schemes, we will send all the results to LCC."

The county council has had confirmation from the Department for Transport that legal checks on the application are complete and the target date for handing over powers is 30 November. A date for when the county council will start using the powers will be shared as soon as it has been determined. In the interim the county council is ensuring all the existing traffic restriction signs and lines are compliant with Civil Parking Enforcement legislation.  

Neil Cucksey, SKDC property development manager, said: "The County Council have made it clear that whilst this process was ongoing they would not be able to progress any requests for adjustments to Traffic Regulation Orders to enable street parking schemes.

"The timescale for processing applications has previously been stated as taking up to one year and beyond but that was based on the prospect of several councils progressing applications. In reality it is only likely to be schemes from South Kesteven District Council that are advanced enough to be submitted as soon as LCC are in a position to accept and process Traffic Regulation Order adjustments. The likely timescale now is 29 weeks subject to objections."

SKDC has previously offered a temporary permit for residents to use off street car parks during this period in Stamford.

Mr Cucksey added: "The potential therefore exists to have resident parking schemes in place by May next year."