East Sussex County Council (ESCC) have published their final map (above and larger here) showing the location of parking meters and changes to on-street parking.
Rye News had previously speculated on the location of the parking meters following the appearance of pavement markings.
The application to introduce civil parking enforcement (CPE) across Rother District was submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) in July 2019. It was formally accepted in March 2020 and ESCC anticipate starting the CPE scheme in October 2020.
ESCC has said it will be writing to residents and businesses about two months before the scheme starts giving further information on how it will operate.
The council has previously said that the introduction of parking controls will help clamp down on illegal behaviour, such as parking on pavements, and will encourage a higher turnover of cars to make it easier for people to drive into the town and shop.
It is understood that residents will be encouraged to purchase an annual residents parking permit and use Rother’s car parks, specifically the under-used Gibbet Marsh. Concerns have been raised at the £320 price tag for an annual parking permit (unless you live on Watchbell Street where it’s £25 per annum) and the fact that it currently has to be paid as one lump sum and cannot be paid in monthly or weekly instalments.
The planning behind the introduction of CPE started long before the outbreak of Covid-19. While ESCC has said they will aim to get everything operational for October 1, there has been speculation that the parking bays on the High Street might be taken out of service to allow social distancing.
This has already been done in towns and cities across the UK to encourage people to return to high streets and shop.
Image Credits: East Sussex County Council .
Absolutely outrageous, surely people who live in Watchbell Street can afford to pay £320 a year for parking? In the mean time us paupers on the outskirts are forced to pay inflated prices in a world of shrinking parking spaces. DISGUSTING!
£320 per annum works out at 88p per day. Where else is parking so cheap?
I can only agree with Mr Playford, another case of the haves and the have nots.
Out of interest who sets these tariffs?
Surely time for a level playing field,why are the residents of Watchbell Street only paying £25 per annum, when others in the town are paying £320 per annum, so they pay less than 6p a day, a little bit different than 88p a day, its scandalous, and i hope members of Rye town council,challenge this injustice too other members of the Community.
In answer to Shelley who wants to know where else parking is so cheap.
Try Watchbell Street where it’s 7p a day.
Can someone please explain why Watchbell street have managed to get that deal? Many of them on the planning committee by any chance?
I hope a permit does not allow unlimited parking else we will be back to square one: residents and shopkeepers taking all the spaces each and every day. That’s why Rye has a parking problem.
Watchbell Street is the highway and so the charge is set by East Sussex County Council. All the public car parks are owned by Rother and they set different and higher charges than ESCC. The parking in Rye has nothing to do with Rye Town Council and hasn’t been for almost 50 years! Not aware that anyone who lives on Watchbell Street is on either East Sussex or Rother’s planning committees or indeed East Sussex or Rother councils or has been so in living memory or longer! Indeed, parking charges have nothing to do with the planning committees of either of these authorities!
So if all the public carparks owned by Rother district council,including the one in Church Square, why are the parking charges different,it seems those that live in the Citadel are getting preferential treatment,at others expense, making excuses for this injustice is not on, and whether Rye town can or cannot do anything about this, they our representatives that we voted on the council in good faith, can surely make their voices heard, on behalf of this injustice.
The gun garden car park has 9 spaces for residents only , there is currently a waiting list for permits , the cost of a annual permit is £1090 . It is by far the most expensive RDC car park in the town .
what measures are expected to ensure the main A259 at South Undercliff doesn’t continue to be the customary illegal chicane that it often is before 6pm?
None of this will amount to a hill of beans if there is no effective enforcement.
All parking should be removed from the High Street, Church Square, Watchbell St, East / West St, Lion St, apart from deliveries/loading bays and some disabled spaces.
The whole point of living or visiting Rye is to admire the period architecture and take in the history. Why on earth does anyone want to blight the landscape with cars and vans and street signs and parking ticket machines ?
Respect and appreciate where you live, don’t force the modern world upon it.
So agree with Andrew McClaren
Andrew – your comment is well-considered and makes perfect sense. As such, what you suggest will almost certainly never happen.
Welcome to Rye.
Absolutely agree with Andrew and Pamela providing their are enough spaces for disabled, loading bays for businesses plus a few spaces where you can drop off for example things to the charity shops or pick up something large from a shop.
I think Peter is spot on. If a permit allows unlimited parking then we will have solved nothing – indeed those who have paid for their permits will now justifiably claim an entitlement. In fact, the only beneficiary will be the authority that receives the revenues.
I might observe that this appears to be a very complex attempted solution to a superficially simple problem – and it fails to address the core issues. I hope I am wrong.
It certainly seems a bargain for some who have their permanent parking space in the church square car park at about £3 a day, nowonder there is a waiting list for the privilege, no such luck for others only paying 88p a day, with no guarantee of a parking place,when the town is packed,even though they have paid the permit charge.
I have the problem every single day of finding a place to park. If the parking problem in Rye is in such a bad way now, how will cope when Martello Developments open their proposed restaurant, exhibition hall, theatre space and concert hall, workshops? This will bring hundreds more visitors to Rye on a weekly, possibly daily base.
What am I supposed to do having asked the totally incompetent company running the newparking system in Rye how I get a trades permit to allow me to park my trades van in Rye they are completely unable to answer my questions. Having started this quest some time ago. Incompetent yes uncontrollable yes unworkable yes that’s 3 yesses from me. I rest my case