- Town residents who are annoyed about lack of parking spaces should attend parish meeting
- Commuters or parents dropping off children blamed for congestion
- Resident says that having a permit is like a ‘lottery’
- Are more parking schemes required? Take our poll below
ST HELIER residents with parking permits who are concerned about the lack of available spaces are being invited to voice their concerns at this month’s parish assembly.
A number of residents have recently said that despite paying to have a permit they are unable to park – often because commuters or parents dropping their children off at school have taken the places.
1. Halkett Place (325 fines in 2012)
2. Beresford Street (316)
3. Esplanade (303)
4. The Parade (260)
5. Phillips Street (223)
6. Victoria Street (220)
7. Broad Street (208)
8. St Mark’s Road (204)
9. The Parade, eastern arm (203)
A recently announced ten per cent rise in the annual cost of residents’ parking permits in town has also caused ‘disquiet’ among car owners in town, according to St Helier Deputy Jackie Hilton.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft has decided to raise the annual cost of residents’ parking permits from £279 to £307.
The fees apply for the main parking zones which include Cheapside, St Thomas’s and St Marks for people living in those areas.
Only the Richmond Road zone is cheaper, which costs from £139.65 per year, due to the limited amount of available space.
Now Deputy Hilton has asked Mr Crowcroft to put the matter on the agenda of this month’s parish assembly, which is to be held at 7 pm at the Town Hall on 13 April.
She said: ‘There is a lot of disquiet in St Helier about the rising cost of parking and a lot of people are not very happy about it. It will at least give parishioners a good opportunity to raise their concerns because generally speaking they haven’t had much of an opportunity until now.’
Deputy Hilton said she also spoke to Constable Crowcroft following complaints from St Helier residents about the ten per cent rise in parking fees.
Frank O’Neil, a music teacher who works mostly in the evenings and at weekends, said he is unable to get a parking space near his house during the day, despite having a permit for Clearview Road.
He said: ‘The 600 people in St Helier who have permits have essentially entered into a lottery over parking spaces. It’s especially bad when the schools come out. The parents are allowed to wait for a maximum of 15 minutes but they are sometimes sitting in their cars for ages reading a book.’
Deputy Hilton said she arranged to have the parking issue raised at the meeting partly because of recent comments by Transport Minister Eddie Noel and Environment Minister Steve Luce about shopper and commuter parking in town.
Transport Minister Eddie Noel said the parking rates in St Helier were set to rise ‘way above inflation’ in order to encourage people to take the bus rather than drive to work, and Deputy Luce, who supports more Islanders commuting to work by bus, claims there are too many cheap car parks in town.
Deputy Hilton said: ‘They are talking about how to reduce the amount of people parking in St Helier by raising the prices.
‘This is penalising people who live in St Helier, and anything that makes parking more expensive for shoppers has to be disastrous.’
- Permits are available to anyone who lives within a Residents’ Parking Zone, has a Jersey-registered vehicle, and does not have off-street parking at their premises.
- A resident may not hold more than one permit at the same time.
- A permit is only valid for the vehicle for which it was issued and is not transferable to any other vehicle.
- The parish of St Helier administers the Residents Parking scheme on behalf of the Transport Minister. Application forms are available online here and from the Town Hall.
- Completed application forms must be submitted to customer services on the ground floor of the Town Hall, along with proof of residence, registration document for the vehicle and payment.
- If a vehicle is wider than 6’6″ (2 metres) and weighs more than 1600kgs, then the parish cannot issue a permit.
- There are limits to the number of permits issued in each zone, to ensure the probability of finding a parking space. As such, there is currently a waiting list in each of the zones due to their high popularity.
- Temporary Residents’ Permits are available for contractors employed to carry out works within the zones at a cost of £6 + GST per day.
- Paycard parking for visitors is available within the zones daily between 9 am and 10 pm. However, there is no visitor parking within the zone between 10 pm and 9 am.
- Visitor paycard parking within the zones is identified by roadside signage that also stipulates the periods parking is permitted.
- St Helier’s community support team regularly patrol the zones and are given additional support by St Helier’s honorary police, the roads’ inspectors and others.
THE Constable of St Helier called for the paycard system to be scrapped last summer.
Simon Crowcroft said the cards, which have been used for about 20 years, were outdated and could be having an impact on town business.
And he has called for the automatic payment system being used in Sand Street multi-storey car park to be used in other car parks.
‘I believe progress is being made, but only very slowly. I don’t understand why TTS haven’t rolled out the scheme trialled at Sand Street across any of the other car parks. The sooner it’s replaced, the better.’
‘The current system is not only confusing but it forces people to hurry back to their cars. I want to people to be able to have the time to socialise and shop, or whatever they would like to do in town, without having to worry about how long they have left.’
He added: ‘The other day, I went for a swim at St Brelade’s and saw some tourists debating with each other on how to use paycards. In the end they ended up having to ask me, which is not what we want.
‘It’s also very wasteful using cardboard and other materials to produce the scratchcards, which are thrown away straight after use.’
Currently, most car parks in Britain use a pay and display system and many offer alternatives such as pay by phone or pay in advance on the internet.
