The Charles Kennedy - Car Park Rant
Outraged by
the car parking charges in the town, we had to write a
letter to our local MP. It just so happens that the local MP is
actually a local and an MP. It's none other than the self-styled
alcoholic, Charles Kennedy. He seems a decent enough bloke, but will he
really get us the answers we're looking for? The Rant
Dear Mr
Kennedy,
I don't know if you read the local press in your home town, but let me fill you in on one of the main headlines and main topics of the letters page for the past few weeks. Yes, it's the time when the local council starts to rub their hands in in joyful glee, it's car park charging time again.
I read through your pre-election statement and can't recall seeing anything regarding this subject. As the council owns pretty much all of the car parks in Fort William, they are bound to make some money on this. We are dutifully informed at the West End and An Aird car parks we are allowed to park there for the whole day, excluding overnight parking, for the princely sum of £1.50, a fair exchange for the average motorist's right to occupy a parking space for a period of ten hours. For those ten hours, that space is theirs. Although setting up public entertainment facilities are classed as disturbing the peace, it's not something we should shout about.
Within the main thoroughfare of completely useless, I'd be grateful of your comments on this, and disgraceful tartan shops on the main high street. Sure, we should be proud of our heritage, but a "Bonnie Wee Beanie Nessie" in almost every shop isn't the way forward for commerce in this already tourist scarred town. It's not difficult to see why so many people are heading to places like Inverness, Oban and Glasgow to buy their everyday items. And with the lack of a place to pre book a Citylink coach ticket, most people will be left standing at their respective destinations, whether they have bought a return ticket or not.
Back to my original point. The car parks in the town centre are all of a fairly average size. All come complete with individual parking bays, ticket machines at a ratio of 2:1 in most cases. The general populace will have noticed that these ticket machines proudly displayed in our car parks are newer than the ones we had last year. The grey gunmetal casing with dark green plastic front and obligatory buttons and "coin return"/ticket dispenser slot. Also the noise that once you have inserted your coinage and pressed the button, you would be greeted with a noise, not too dissimilar to that of R2D2 malfunctioning, or a local ned about to accost you for some change. I say "coin return," as when you placed a £1 coin into the slot, and expected your 20p change plus ticket, most of the time you got the ticket and no change. Did we, the unsuspecting public, pay for these new machines? With all those twenty pence pieces it has refused to return to me over the years, has the council managed to save up and buy new "Pay & Display" machines for all the car parks in the area? Not only have we managed to fund a new machine in every car park, we have also managed to purchase a brand new "Car Park Patrol" vehicle also.
The main point of this letter is this: What are the regulations for parking? Well, as they are not displayed anywhere near the machines, I thought I should inform you, if you are ever up here in the near future and unsure if you will have to "pay and display." You can park in any of the car parks after six o'clock for free and on the Sabbath, it is also free. So don't be expecting to see the "Car Park Patrol" after 6pm, nor on the Sabbath. I have lost count of all the times when I have walked past a person, about to deposit a coin into the slot, and told them that "It's free after six o'clock."
Why aren't the signs multilingual, no I don't mean we should have signs in "the Gaelic," like most road signs in the area, but in the languages of most of the visiting public? This would save me having to tell them and also it would save them losing their money, only to discover that it was free anyway.
I would be most grateful of a response.
Cogsy @ ST.
Sent on behalf of a friend
I don't know if you read the local press in your home town, but let me fill you in on one of the main headlines and main topics of the letters page for the past few weeks. Yes, it's the time when the local council starts to rub their hands in in joyful glee, it's car park charging time again.
I read through your pre-election statement and can't recall seeing anything regarding this subject. As the council owns pretty much all of the car parks in Fort William, they are bound to make some money on this. We are dutifully informed at the West End and An Aird car parks we are allowed to park there for the whole day, excluding overnight parking, for the princely sum of £1.50, a fair exchange for the average motorist's right to occupy a parking space for a period of ten hours. For those ten hours, that space is theirs. Although setting up public entertainment facilities are classed as disturbing the peace, it's not something we should shout about.
Within the main thoroughfare of completely useless, I'd be grateful of your comments on this, and disgraceful tartan shops on the main high street. Sure, we should be proud of our heritage, but a "Bonnie Wee Beanie Nessie" in almost every shop isn't the way forward for commerce in this already tourist scarred town. It's not difficult to see why so many people are heading to places like Inverness, Oban and Glasgow to buy their everyday items. And with the lack of a place to pre book a Citylink coach ticket, most people will be left standing at their respective destinations, whether they have bought a return ticket or not.
Back to my original point. The car parks in the town centre are all of a fairly average size. All come complete with individual parking bays, ticket machines at a ratio of 2:1 in most cases. The general populace will have noticed that these ticket machines proudly displayed in our car parks are newer than the ones we had last year. The grey gunmetal casing with dark green plastic front and obligatory buttons and "coin return"/ticket dispenser slot. Also the noise that once you have inserted your coinage and pressed the button, you would be greeted with a noise, not too dissimilar to that of R2D2 malfunctioning, or a local ned about to accost you for some change. I say "coin return," as when you placed a £1 coin into the slot, and expected your 20p change plus ticket, most of the time you got the ticket and no change. Did we, the unsuspecting public, pay for these new machines? With all those twenty pence pieces it has refused to return to me over the years, has the council managed to save up and buy new "Pay & Display" machines for all the car parks in the area? Not only have we managed to fund a new machine in every car park, we have also managed to purchase a brand new "Car Park Patrol" vehicle also.
The main point of this letter is this: What are the regulations for parking? Well, as they are not displayed anywhere near the machines, I thought I should inform you, if you are ever up here in the near future and unsure if you will have to "pay and display." You can park in any of the car parks after six o'clock for free and on the Sabbath, it is also free. So don't be expecting to see the "Car Park Patrol" after 6pm, nor on the Sabbath. I have lost count of all the times when I have walked past a person, about to deposit a coin into the slot, and told them that "It's free after six o'clock."
Why aren't the signs multilingual, no I don't mean we should have signs in "the Gaelic," like most road signs in the area, but in the languages of most of the visiting public? This would save me having to tell them and also it would save them losing their money, only to discover that it was free anyway.
I would be most grateful of a response.
Cogsy @ ST.
Sent on behalf of a friend
Kennedy Response #1
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter detailing your concerns over the car parking charges levied by The Highland Council.
This is just to confirm that I have now made representations on your behalf to the Director of Transport at The Highland Council and I will be back in touch just as soon as I have further information
Meantime, with best wishes.
Yours sincerely
Charles Kennedy MP
Thank you for your letter detailing your concerns over the car parking charges levied by The Highland Council.
This is just to confirm that I have now made representations on your behalf to the Director of Transport at The Highland Council and I will be back in touch just as soon as I have further information
Meantime, with best wishes.
Yours sincerely
Charles Kennedy MP
Kennedy Response #2
Dear Sir,
Further to my earlier letter I now attach a copy of a self explanatory reply with attachments from Tricia Snow at The Highland Council.
Ms Snow's reply details the work that has been done to upgrade the ticket machines and signage in the car parks at Viewforth, Middle Street and Parade Gardens.
Once the new signs are in place they will make clear that charges do not apply after 6pm.
I trust this offers the reassurance you were seeking.
With best wishes.
Charles Kennedy MP
Further to my earlier letter I now attach a copy of a self explanatory reply with attachments from Tricia Snow at The Highland Council.
Ms Snow's reply details the work that has been done to upgrade the ticket machines and signage in the car parks at Viewforth, Middle Street and Parade Gardens.
Once the new signs are in place they will make clear that charges do not apply after 6pm.
I trust this offers the reassurance you were seeking.
With best wishes.
Charles Kennedy MP
Kennedy Response
Dear Mr
Kennedy,
I refer to your letter of 21 June 2005 to Mary McLauchlan. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding on her behalf.
CAR PARKS
In order to address customer concerns regarding car parking provision, particularly in relation to parking periods, a public consultation exercise was carried out last year. As a result, a new scale of charges (as shown in an attached appendix) was introduced last winter for the Short Stay Town Centre car parks in the town i.e. Viewforth, Middle Street and Parade Gardens.
To cater for the new charges it was neccesary to install new machines. To have purchased machines which could give change would have been significantly more expensive, and would be targets for vandalism and theft. The costs of the maintenance contract would also increase.
As part of the new parking strategy it was also agreed that there would be alterations and improvements to the signage; this would further highlight the no charging regime in the evenings after 6 o'clock and on Sundays. Some signage has already been installed, and the rest will be completed soon. I enclose details of the signage which has been erected to-date and which goes some way to address the concerns raised. I also enclose a copy of the Notices displayed directly beside each parking meter giving the directions and conditions of use.
The long stay or outer car parks namely - West End, Transport Centre (opposite the Belford Hospital), and An Aird No 1 and 2 - remain unchanged at the charge of £1.50 for a whole day. Consequently, we have been able to retain the older type machines (coloured green) at these locations. It is however our intention to also improve the signage at these machines, meanwhile notices similar to the above have been installed.
To date the public response to the scale of charging has been favourable. There has been a significantly increased take up in the number of local residents who are making use of the parking card, which is suitable for use in the short stay car parks. This works by pre-purchasing a card with an initial value of £10.00 which is effectively £20.00 worth of credit for a parking machine. When used for say 1 hour period the card is debited to the value of 20p.This means that regular users of the car parks can utilise these facilities at a 50% reduction. The previous pre-paid cards were exchanged for the new up-to-date ones at no additional cost to the user.
With regard to your constituents comments on the cost of parking at the West End and An Aird No 2, local residents can obtain a disc from the Council Service point or at our office in Carr's Corner which allows free parking all day at these facilities as shown on the attached Notice. There is also a 6 month permit for the long stay car parks whereby 26 weeks' worth of parking can be purchased for £50.00, giving a weeks worth of parking for less than £2.00
The car parks in the town do not generate vast profits as any additional monies raised help to maintain both charging and non-charging car parks.
The Council has considered erection of multilingual signs but the size was prohibitive.
So, in conclusion: The Council wants to save money and if you live in the area, buy a pre-paid card and never put cash in the machines. In the long run it'll shaft the council..
I refer to your letter of 21 June 2005 to Mary McLauchlan. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding on her behalf.
CAR PARKS
In order to address customer concerns regarding car parking provision, particularly in relation to parking periods, a public consultation exercise was carried out last year. As a result, a new scale of charges (as shown in an attached appendix) was introduced last winter for the Short Stay Town Centre car parks in the town i.e. Viewforth, Middle Street and Parade Gardens.
To cater for the new charges it was neccesary to install new machines. To have purchased machines which could give change would have been significantly more expensive, and would be targets for vandalism and theft. The costs of the maintenance contract would also increase.
As part of the new parking strategy it was also agreed that there would be alterations and improvements to the signage; this would further highlight the no charging regime in the evenings after 6 o'clock and on Sundays. Some signage has already been installed, and the rest will be completed soon. I enclose details of the signage which has been erected to-date and which goes some way to address the concerns raised. I also enclose a copy of the Notices displayed directly beside each parking meter giving the directions and conditions of use.
The long stay or outer car parks namely - West End, Transport Centre (opposite the Belford Hospital), and An Aird No 1 and 2 - remain unchanged at the charge of £1.50 for a whole day. Consequently, we have been able to retain the older type machines (coloured green) at these locations. It is however our intention to also improve the signage at these machines, meanwhile notices similar to the above have been installed.
To date the public response to the scale of charging has been favourable. There has been a significantly increased take up in the number of local residents who are making use of the parking card, which is suitable for use in the short stay car parks. This works by pre-purchasing a card with an initial value of £10.00 which is effectively £20.00 worth of credit for a parking machine. When used for say 1 hour period the card is debited to the value of 20p.This means that regular users of the car parks can utilise these facilities at a 50% reduction. The previous pre-paid cards were exchanged for the new up-to-date ones at no additional cost to the user.
With regard to your constituents comments on the cost of parking at the West End and An Aird No 2, local residents can obtain a disc from the Council Service point or at our office in Carr's Corner which allows free parking all day at these facilities as shown on the attached Notice. There is also a 6 month permit for the long stay car parks whereby 26 weeks' worth of parking can be purchased for £50.00, giving a weeks worth of parking for less than £2.00
The car parks in the town do not generate vast profits as any additional monies raised help to maintain both charging and non-charging car parks.
The Council has considered erection of multilingual signs but the size was prohibitive.
So, in conclusion: The Council wants to save money and if you live in the area, buy a pre-paid card and never put cash in the machines. In the long run it'll shaft the council..
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