Lack of parking on pier closure days to be raised with LPA
LERWICK Community Council (LCC) is set to write to Lerwick Port Authority (LPA) about a perceived lack of parking in the town during cruise ship visits.
It comes after Shetland Tourism Association (STA) chairwoman Amanda Hawick raised concerns about what she said was a growing lack of space in the town on days when the Victoria Pier is closed.
Victoria Pier is shut on days when larger cruise ships visit the harbour, which allows for buses to take visitors straight from the ship out onto tours.
Hawick said that parking issues were only going to get worse in years to come as more ships visited Lerwick.
And she said the LPA “really have to find a solution” to the problem.
“They’re displacing more than 100 cars that would park on the pier,” Hawick told Monday’s meeting of the Lerwick Community Council.
“How do they envision offering parking on days when the pier is closed?”
Hawick was attending the meeting not as STA chairwoman, but as a Lerwick community councillor.
However she said the STA had been written to recently by the LPA about visitors parking on or near roads in the centre of town.
The LPA had said its security had been having difficulties dealing with parked cars, according to Hawick.
She said that the STA had told them that they were “not an enforcement agency” though, and said the problem was being caused by the LPA’s “displacement” of cars when the Victoria Pier parking was closed off.
“This is a Lerwick issue and it’s only going to get worse every year,” Hawick said.
“We do get a lot of complaints at the STA about this, about the traffic congestion and where to find parking.
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“This is not going to go away, there are more ships coming.”
Hawick had called for the LCC to write to Shetland Islands Council as well, but LCC chairman Jim Anderson proposed instead they simply write to the port authority.
Anderson said the fear was that the LPA may suggest shutting the Victoria Pier car park permanently.
A total of 142 cruise ships are scheduled to visit Shetland this year, though not every ship will visit Lerwick – and Victoria Pier is not closed during every Lerwick visit either.
Lerwick Port Authority has been approached for comment.
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