Parking charges introduced at Colchester country park (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)
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Fees at Turner Road Highwoods car park from next week
5:36pm Thursday 29th March 2012 in North Essex
PARKING charges come into force at a country park from next week.
Colchester Council is introducing fees at the Highwoods Turner Road car park from Monday.
Parking for p to two hours on weekdays will cost 50 pence, between two and four hours £2, and more than four hours will cost £4.
Weekends and bank holidays will be 50 pence for up to two hours and £2 for more than two hours.
The Chanterelle car park will remain free to all users.
Money raised from the scheme will be invested back into Highwoods County Park.
A short stay season ticket costing £50 is available.
For more information or for a season ticket contact parking@colchester.gov.uk.
Comments(29)
saloo
says...
8:16pm Thu 29 Mar 12
Reginald47
says...
12:10am Fri 30 Mar 12
Boris
says...
12:17am Fri 30 Mar 12
saloo wrote:Get your councillors to lobby for a residents-only parking scheme.
It will just encourage people to park in the roads surrounding the Park (Along with the roads that already have a problem with people parking in them to use the hospital) so they don't have to pay to use the park!
saloo
says...
8:17am Fri 30 Mar 12
Boris wrote:That'll be a plan!!
saloo wrote:Get your councillors to lobby for a residents-only parking scheme.
It will just encourage people to park in the roads surrounding the Park (Along with the roads that already have a problem with people parking in them to use the hospital) so they don't have to pay to use the park!
Pay to park in the Country park which and money made is ploughed back into the maintenance etc of the park (a good thing) - Then because of the knock on effect for the residents surrounding the area a residential area is introduced thus creating more income for parking services and CBC..... No wonder they were happy to "offer" their services at the Country park as it will no doubt be beneficial to them in the long run!
crazy comments
says...
8:18am Fri 30 Mar 12
Cliff
says...
8:33am Fri 30 Mar 12
TheCaptain
says...
8:58am Fri 30 Mar 12
Say It As It Is OK?
says...
10:06am Fri 30 Mar 12
Anyone visiting the country park, who want to avoid the parking charges, drive to the Chanterelle car park, which remains (for now) free to all users. The downside is the visitor centre off Turner Road will suffer as they might have to close due to a reduction in visitor numbers.
The reason charges are being applied is staff and visitors to the hospital and other NHS units on Turner Road use the Turner road country Park car park to save on paying to park at the Hospital.
And, yes the knock on effect will further cause problems in local side streets, where little thought has ever been given to residents.
Residential street parking issues, throughout Mile End, are evident every day. Motorists using the Station, the Hospital or Cuckoo Farm Stadium (on match days) try to avoid paying to park and often leave their cars for many hours at a time.
CBC introduced a ground breaking Travel Plan for the Stadium, that promised to keep the roads in Mile End free of supporters parking but this is largely ignored and certainly not enforced by the council, who are the ones who created the problem by building a stadium without adequate thought for parking or for local residents access.
CBC decided to ignore some of the conditions required in the planning application for the stadium because they were both applicant and the approving body, for their own planning application! This gave them freedom to do whatever they wanted, clearly something they would not give to a private individual or developer putting in a planning application!
Promises made by the council have, todte come to nothing, so what chance is there for residents around Turner Road?
totallyfootball
says...
10:08am Fri 30 Mar 12
Martin Goss
says...
12:05pm Fri 30 Mar 12
The North Essex Parking Parternship will be sending letters to all residents which will allow them to respond officially and then once this is collated the schemes can be worked up.
Sorting this issue is the number 1 priority in Colchester and will happen!
Martin Goss
says...
12:08pm Fri 30 Mar 12
jut1972
says...
3:17pm Fri 30 Mar 12
a) its smaller than the main car park and so is now likely to be busier than ever
b) the visitors centre is at the paid for car park
c) the newly opened kids playground is at the paid for car park
As for the following two comments:
Cliff says...
8:33am Fri 30 Mar 12
Surely if they can afford petrol to drive their car there they can afford 50p to park.”
Irrelevant some people have no choice and dont benefit from disabled parking (me included), we already pay you a fortune in council tax Cliff and arent impressed by how you choose to spend it.
TheCaptain says...
8:58am Fri 30 Mar 12
Why should people who don't use the car park pay to maintain it through their council tax. If you use it pay for it. Simple.”
Ok Captain I wont pay to have your bins picked up or your streetlights.
This was a stupid idea from the start designed to raise revenue under the pretence of solving hospital parking issues. I would like to see how the financial forecast now stands up based on the fact that the overall parking income is woefully short of where it was expected to be.
A complete waste of time and money.
TheCaptain
says...
4:29pm Fri 30 Mar 12
jut1972 wrote:What a ridiculous reply we all have our bins collected and have streetlights and pay for these from our council tax.
There are 3 problems with parking at Chanterlle:
a) its smaller than the main car park and so is now likely to be busier than ever
b) the visitors centre is at the paid for car park
c) the newly opened kids playground is at the paid for car park
As for the following two comments:
Cliff says...
8:33am Fri 30 Mar 12
Surely if they can afford petrol to drive their car there they can afford 50p to park.”
Irrelevant some people have no choice and dont benefit from disabled parking (me included), we already pay you a fortune in council tax Cliff and arent impressed by how you choose to spend it.
TheCaptain says...
8:58am Fri 30 Mar 12
Why should people who don't use the car park pay to maintain it through their council tax. If you use it pay for it. Simple.”
Ok Captain I wont pay to have your bins picked up or your streetlights.
This was a stupid idea from the start designed to raise revenue under the pretence of solving hospital parking issues. I would like to see how the financial forecast now stands up based on the fact that the overall parking income is woefully short of where it was expected to be.
A complete waste of time and money.
So you do not pay for my bins to be collected I do.
We don't all use a car park.
Why should the non-users pay for a service that isn't a necessity?
Say It As It Is OK?
says...
5:08pm Fri 30 Mar 12
A typical one, on the subject of parking, is those with blue badges who get free parking in Colchester car parks. This means the rest of us, even those who don't use car parks pay to cover the cost of those who park for free! Some would say having a disability is not about whether someone can afford to pay or not but that is how it is!
Say It As It Is OK?
says...
5:20pm Fri 30 Mar 12
moshking
says...
5:39pm Fri 30 Mar 12
Will I have to pay when I go to vote?
Reginald47
says...
8:54pm Fri 30 Mar 12
mamaloon
says...
11:49pm Fri 30 Mar 12
Boris
says...
12:40am Sat 31 Mar 12
Martin Goss wrote:"Sorting this issue is the number 1 priority in Colchester and will happen!"
Good job then that I hand delivered 300 street letters in the last day to Wryneck Close, Hollymead Close, Lufkin Road, Beaumont Close, Fieldview Close and Kingswood Road updating residents of the Parking options being offered to them vote on to combat patient parking. Residents are being asked to choose between Resident's Parking, single yellow lines during hospital visiting hours, double yellow lines to remove all parking or leaving as is.
The North Essex Parking Parternship will be sending letters to all residents which will allow them to respond officially and then once this is collated the schemes can be worked up.
Sorting this issue is the number 1 priority in Colchester and will happen!
How absurdly parochial. This problem might be a priority for one corner of Mile End but the rest of Colchester has far more important issues, which none of the present councillors seems interested in.
What about providing a decent bus station, Mr Goss?
What about guaranteeing that you will not sell off tennis courts for housing?
What about preserving the council's sheltered housing?
Please try to be serious.
yum!yum!
says...
10:00am Sat 31 Mar 12
Martin Goss wrote:And what about the residents on "Northfields", They are nearer to the Country park than the roads you have quoted, The problem will soon shift from the above roads to the new development which hasn't even been taken on by the Council, so what hope have the residents go there, Parking is already an issue as it is with people from all over using residents "allocated" parking spaces.
Good job then that I hand delivered 300 street letters in the last day to Wryneck Close, Hollymead Close, Lufkin Road, Beaumont Close, Fieldview Close and Kingswood Road updating residents of the Parking options being offered to them vote on to combat patient parking. Residents are being asked to choose between Resident's Parking, single yellow lines during hospital visiting hours, double yellow lines to remove all parking or leaving as is.
The North Essex Parking Parternship will be sending letters to all residents which will allow them to respond officially and then once this is collated the schemes can be worked up.
Sorting this issue is the number 1 priority in Colchester and will happen!
TheCaptain
says...
8:17pm Sat 31 Mar 12
Say It As It Is OK? wrote:I happy paying for essential services i don't use.
Using TheCaptain's reasoning then we should only pay for the services we use. There are many services we all pay for but don't use.
A typical one, on the subject of parking, is those with blue badges who get free parking in Colchester car parks. This means the rest of us, even those who don't use car parks pay to cover the cost of those who park for free! Some would say having a disability is not about whether someone can afford to pay or not but that is how it is!
Education icluding libraries and Social Servies including blue badges.But non essential ones like free parking at a leisure site. Pay up and stop whinging
hughie-s
says...
8:24am Sun 1 Apr 12
Say It As It Is OK?
says...
9:18am Sun 1 Apr 12
TheCaptain wrote:Personally I am not objecting to paying to park, where have I said I was? The comment referred to essential services and whether or not we should all pay for non essential services. Principally we are in agreement that non essential services should be paid for only by those using the service.
Say It As It Is OK? wrote:I happy paying for essential services i don't use.
Using TheCaptain's reasoning then we should only pay for the services we use. There are many services we all pay for but don't use.
A typical one, on the subject of parking, is those with blue badges who get free parking in Colchester car parks. This means the rest of us, even those who don't use car parks pay to cover the cost of those who park for free! Some would say having a disability is not about whether someone can afford to pay or not but that is how it is!
Education icluding libraries and Social Servies including blue badges.But non essential ones like free parking at a leisure site. Pay up and stop whinging
As far as libraries are concerned, they are "nice to have" and do offer educational benefits but are used by less people nowadays with the advent of the internet and ereaders. A library can therefore hardly be called "essential", just like its not essential that blue badge holders are given free parking in car parks. Having a blue badge is not about the holder being unable to pay to park but more to do with their medical needs. Therefore, this is also not an essential service that blue badge holders get free parking at the expense of everyone else, many of whom don't even drive.
Martin Goss
says...
1:11pm Mon 2 Apr 12
1. When I say this is the number 1 priority for Colchester I am referring to traffic schemes - sorting this issue around the hospital is number 1 in Colchester for parking schemes.
2. Northfields will be covered by its own scheme as the roads are built and adopted. The developer will have to fund this and a scheme will need to happen on this area too. All roads are unadopted so the scheme will be handled in conjunction with the developer Linden Homes.
stackerman
says...
6:35pm Mon 2 Apr 12
jut1972
says...
8:38pm Tue 3 Apr 12
What % did we miss parking revenue by?
And what % profit was this scheme supposed to make?
You can see where I am going here. It's a scheme no one wants and will cost Colchester money to run. Why cant Anne intervene and get this stopped?
saloo
says...
9:52pm Tue 3 Apr 12
jut1972 wrote:Anne Turrell intervening and stopping it - She has the power then???, I thought she was just a Councillor, Not in charge of CBC? Correct me if i'm wrong!
Martin,
What % did we miss parking revenue by?
And what % profit was this scheme supposed to make?
You can see where I am going here. It's a scheme no one wants and will cost Colchester money to run. Why cant Anne intervene and get this stopped?
jut1972
says...
6:09pm Wed 4 Apr 12
I know Martin Goss was against this so which idiots supported it?
cavillas says...
7:47pm Thu 29 Mar 12