In a recent article I alluded to the fact that the now well-established civil parking enforcement (CPE) regulations were due to be reviewed a year after their introduction and that the year was up some time ago. A few weeks ago, I emailed our East Sussex county councillor, Keith Glazier, and asked about this review. I am still awaiting an answer. Perhaps I should not be surprised, a question I asked him some years ago took a whole year before I was finally able to get a reply, and the reason for the delay was that he had many more important matters crossing his desk.
That may well be the case, and while I recognise that, as leader of the county council, he will have many other matters to consider, as well as those local to Rye, nevertheless there are, from time to time, questions that need answering and as OUR county councillor, time must be made to answer them.
CPE has undoubtedly been a benefit to a lot of the town. Gone are the unruly days when car owners would just stop anywhere they felt like it and leave their cars regardless of the inconvenience it might cause to others. In fact I was told recently by someone living outside the town, but who regularly drives in, that it was so much easier to find a parking place now and, compared to many other towns, the charges were reasonable.
So far, so good. But inevitably, what benefits one area is likely to have an adverse effect on another and this is certainly seen in places immediately adjacent to the controlled zone. Parts of Tilling Green as well as Love Lane and other areas are all seeing a rash of cars, many left for the day, at least one even appears to have been dumped, and whose owners would rather have the longer walk into the centre of town than pay the very modest, and one would have thought, totally affordable daily charge for one of the car parks.
One of the worst affected roads, and potentially most dangerous, is Military Road. For years there have been plenty of cars parked at the beginning of the road outside the row of terraced houses, This has caused no problem and even when the success of the Globe Inn brought more cars, it had little effect on the ease with which through traffic could pass.
Now however, the road – and it is quite a busy through road – is little more than a free car park. With vehicles, very often abandoned for the whole day, left indiscriminately on both sides, the road is reduced to single line use with drivers, finding themselves met with oncoming traffic and no room to pass, having to back up and try and find a space to pull in and allow the other vehicle to find a way through. At some point this WILL result in an accident.
The CPE review is needed precisely to enable this sort of problem to be addressed as well as to look and the performance of the controlled areas. The standard excuse for doing nothing at the moment is, of course, because of Covid. That might once have been a legitimate excuse but now not only are many people – and probably most people – back at work, but with Covid restrictions due to be removed within days, that excuse no longer holds water. It is time for East Sussex County Council to make good on its promises.
Image Credits: John Minter , Nick Forman .
It’s probably time for Keith Glazier to stand down from many of his commitments on other bodies,and perhaps concentrate on being our town representative on East Sussex County Council, we voted him on too do this,sadly seeing he never has time to answer our questions, I do believe it’s time to stand down gracefully Keith, and let someone who has the interest at heart of our town, to do the job that many say you have failed us on.