News / Parking charge project moves ahead despite ‘terrible idea’ comment
LERWICK Community Council (LCC) has agreed to tell Shetland Islands Council to proceed with a project which could see parking charges introduced in the town.
The community council had pressed last month for a parking warden to be hired in Lerwick after hearing from a resident who said parking was “the worst I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime”.
However SIC chief Maggie Sandison responded to say the council was considering imposing parking charges in the town, which the council would collect the money from.
She said the council would charge for parking in public car parks, if the scheme was approved, and would also charge for residential parking permits too.
Lerwick North and Bressay councillor Stephen Leask told Monday’s LCC meeting he thought it was a “terrible idea”.
Leask said he felt it would be “really discriminatory on folk that live on the periphery of Lerwick or the country” to be charged for parking in town.
But community councillor Karen Fraser struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that Shetland was “quite unusual in having no charges” at present.
“The pier has charges, Orkney has charges,” she said.
“If we want a parking warden, it has to be paid for.
“Something’s got to be done and it’s not going to please everybody. We can’t all just keep parking wherever we want for free.”
Chairman Jim Anderson said of Sandison’s letter that you get “nothing for nothing in this world”.
Living Lerwick’s Emma Miller was asked about a survey the town centre organisation conducted looking at parking in Lerwick’s ‘old swimming pool’ car park.
Miller said they carried this out over two different weeks to build up a bigger picture of the availability.
And she said it “won’t come as any surprise” to anyone that the car park was busy or full for the majority of the time.
She added that there was a “high number of council care worker cars parked there” during that time.
“We did provide our results to the council, but I don’t really think anything was ever done with it,” she added.
The comment about council cars prompted Anderson to quip that the SIC could charge commercial vehicles only, effectively charging themselves for parking.
Community councillor Andy Carter said he felt that the debate was “beginning to grow arms and legs”.
He pointed out that it all stemmed from one resident complaining about poor parking in their local area, adding that it “seems to have gone beyond that”.
Leask suggested that car parking discs – which allowed drivers to display when they arrived and stay for a set amount of time – should be brought back for parking below the Fort Charlotte.
Amanda Hawick, who also sits as a community councillor, called that a “great idea” but again asked who would enforce it.
The LCC agreed to write back to Sandison and tell her to proceed with the decriminalised parking enforcement plans, adding they would consider them in full once they were at a more advanced stage.
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