Parking charges are still too high in Bexhill

With reservations, I welcome the amendment agreed unanimously by the Rother District Council’s Cabinet on Monday, 7th September 2020 to introduce annual parking permits in Rother car parks where hourly charges are being introduced.

These permits have the effect of reducing the annual parking fee for cars parked every day in a Rother District Council car park in or near Bexhill Town Centre from £1,825 to £350.

While a massive improvement, this is still expensive for town centre residents whether living in a flat above town centre shops or renting a room in a flat with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities above these shops.

Residents at the southern end of London Road or the northern end of Sackville Road may be displaced by the enforcement of double yellow lines. They will be looking for somewhere else to park and the small car park in front of the Town Hall seems an obvious alternative.

These residents are not prosperous but might need a car to get to work. If they cannot find a space in a nearby street by displacing someone else, they will be spending 14 times as much as the £25 East Sussex County Council annual street parking permit on a £350 Rother car park parking permit.

Similarly, residents of Eversley Road tend to live in houses that have been converted into half a dozen flats each. Again, these are not prosperous but are also being charged 14 times more than the East Sussex County Council parking permit to park their cars in Eversley Road car park if they are unable to find a space on the street. Some residents of Reginald, Windsor or Victoria Roads, who might also find themselves displaced by the enforcement of no parking zones near street corners may need to migrate to the car park in front of the Town Hall or Wainwright Road car park. In its present state, the daily charge at Wainwright Road car park should not be increased from £1 to £5 per day, nor should the annual parking permit cost £350.

The poorer or less affluent residents of Bexhill Central ward are, in my view, being overcharged by this decision.

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