Wiltshire Council are holding a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) Consultation regarding a proposal to change the parking and waiting restrictions in Kennet Place, Marlborough. The proposals are to remove the ‘No Waiting’ signs, to offer Resident Parking Permits and to restrict general public parking between the hours of 8 am and 6pm to 2 hours and no return in 2 hours. This brings Kennet Place parking more in line with what is offered in The Parade, but will it solve the residents’ parking difficulties?
For many, many years, with the support of Marlborough Town Council, Val Compton, a Kennet Place resident, has been lobbying for more preferential terms for resident parking in Kennet Place. Changes to the parking come under the remit of Wiltshire Council and it is only now that something is being done. Val Compton told Marlborough.news, “I think the first request for residents’ parking went to the council in 1997! This has been the slowest process and the longest campaign ever for me.”
Originally the residents asked for overnight parking to be restricted to residents. Val commented, “The council said they were unable to take action overnight so we couldn’t have that. They offered the road to be Residents’ Parking only or the option of two hours for the general public in the unmarked kerbside spaces and unlimited time for residents with a permit. We debated it and thought keeping the whole road just for us when the pressure on parking is so high would be rather mean! Also, any visitors or tradespeople would be unable to park whilst doing work on our houses. That was pre-flood of course.
We accepted the two hour spaces as this will prevent the long term parking which causes so many problems for us, with drivers leaving their cars in Kennet Place for full days, weeks, months, or in a couple of cases, holding a spot for themselves for several years! This sort of parking was indeed legal, but totally thoughtless, when we only have a maximum of 8 spaces in Kennet Place overnight and there are 8 houses in the terrace.
We requested this as a “Pilot Scheme” and have yet, of course, to see if it works for everyone! Fingers crossed it will – and if the general public would simply observe the rules on single and double yellow lines as well…. That would be a bonus!”
All the houses in Kennet Place were badly flooded in January and are currently uninhabitable. Val, and all the other residents, request people not to not park there to allow for the many tradesmen from builders to electricians and plumbers to park their vehicles there.
At Monday’s Marlborough Town Council Planning Meeting the Council agreed to send a statement of support for the parking scheme. Details of the proposals can be found here or in Marlborough Library during library opening hours. The consultation closes on February 19.