RPZs: You can't fit a quart in a pint pot
As reported in last week's Journal: Residents' Parking Zones (RPZs) for Newmarket remain on Forest Heath Conservatives' agenda.
The matter has been under consideration for some time and remains under-considered.
Last April, the Conservative majority decided to spend 66,000 on yet another expert survey. A year later, the experts have not even been appointed so when a final decision might be taken is anyone's guess.
However, should it be decided that RPZs are to be foisted on Newmarket, then residents can look forward to paying for a chance – not a guarantee – that they might be able to park one car somewhere near their home.
Conservative council leader Geoffrey Jaggard insists that charging Council Tax payers extra for parking near their homes 'is not a money making exercise'. He is quite right. The 66,000 survey cost is a thumping great loss for a start; any RPZ fees will pay for wardens and other expenses of such a scheme.
The purported object of the survey is to address the parking problems of Newmarket.
Such matters were the remit of a Forest Heath Council working group of Newmarket councillors but this group was disbanded after the election two years ago when the Conservatives lost their majority in Newmarket and following the introduction of car park charges, which seemingly were considered to solve the problems.
The Journal reports that the fee-paying car parks are running at a loss. Newmarket needs outsiders to work in the town and visit and spend money here.
Ample and free parking for all must surely be the way to attract and continue to attract such visitors – if they are deterred from coming here, Newmarket will suffer.
I would hope that any RPZ survey would conclude that it is impossible to get a quart into a pint pot, or a litre into a half-litre vessel. It's really so obvious that I am sure a Forest Heath Council Newmarket working group, in conjunction with the Town Council, could have arrived at the answers cheaper and quicker to this and many other Newmarket problems, rather than employing expensive experts.
Andrew Appleby
Fordham Road
Newmarket
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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