I am not a driver (failed the test too often) so I don’t own a car – though I do have a garage – so I have no personal axe to grind!
Elsewhere in Rye where the houses pre-dated the invention of the car there are no garages, and the photo above tells the story – which is just not a High Street problem! The car was finally moved last Saturday.
People need access to their homes and a parking space in order to drop off children, shopping, grandpa – a long list – and thoughtless and possibly illegal parking deprives them of access to their homes and space to unload, particularly in some of Rye’s narrow and congested streets.
The offender in this case in Rope Walk had been there for weeks and (if the flat tyre shown here) was the problem, a call to a garage does not take that long.
And, even if I’m not a driver, I know there is no shortage of rescue services. However this not just a Rope Walk problem, though in this particular case there is a very large car park just across the road. And if this was someone who had gone on holiday, it has been a very long one.
I travel around Rye a lot, sometimes by accident, sometimes intentionally, on the community bus which goes up the Udimore Road and around Tilling Green as well as going up to the hospital in Playden before looping round to Military Road, and then going up New Road to the houses there.
The bus goes around most of the town and there are clearly visible problems caused by parking everywhere, though, where people can they have created driveways and/or built garages – and there are garages to hire in some places, though cars seem to be being built larger than the existing standard size for garages nowadays.
So there is a need for parking and those who do not have, and can never have, a garage need to be able to park near their home or workplace (if that is possible, but in some narrow roads it is a very big “if”).
And at the same time you need to be able to quickly unload, or load up, people and/or goods, and it is not just in the High Street (or indeed Rope Walk) that this is becoming increasingly difficult.
In many places with older housing with no garages (which can mean up to the 1930s) this means widespread resident parking permits (elsewhere like London) and sometimes few, if any, for nearby hotels and restaurants.
Rye Town Council therefore needs to be looking closely at this problem now, and not just in the context of the High Street – because the problems are already there as these photos from Rope Walk show.
Our county councillor has said parking will be kept under review once the meters arrive and the town council needs to ready with clear ideas – and not just for a multi-storey which stays empty often like the Gibbet Marsh car park.
Image Credits: Rye News library .
When was parking anywhere in Rye not a problem? To my mind it will never be fixed until such time as a ‘Park and Ride’ facility is introduced for the short-term visitor. This solution is so obvious that there has to be a reason why one doesn’t exist.
One must agree with michael,Rye town council seem to dismiss this idea,just like previous councillors did years ago, where are all these locals going to park their cars when meters are installed in the town, especially on a thursday when the market is operational, it will only cause more problems to the residents of kings avenue,military road and all the other areas of Rye where they can get their free parking,that these people have caused,by their blatent disrespect to areas with yellow lines.