The long running saga of paid parking continued in February 2015 with a requete to reverse the decision the previous year to introduce paid parking. On the back of this an amendment was placed by Deputy Lowe to introduce parking clocks. My speech on that amendment is set out below. My view is, if we are to bring in paid parking, it should be across the Island, not just part of St Peter Port.
Sir, I personally think this amendment makes perfect sense. I disagree with Deputy Dorey when he says this is a desperate amendment, far from it.
I totally agree with Deputies Le Clerc and Perrot here. This makes perfect pragmatic sense. It spreads the load amongst all motorists.
Deputy Brehaut says the poor will be affected . Well not as much as £1,200 a year if they have to park at North Beach. This represents the cost of a tankful of petrol.
I think that is fairer than sieving out a relatively small number of people, so small that as Deputy Gillson just mentioned, will hardly have influenced behaviours right across the Island. The fact that a benefit in kind will not now be investigated really concerns me. A small number of people will be inordinately hit
whereas those actually causing what congestion we have driving through the Town to their parking spaces in Admiral Park will not. This will not cause a lot of bureaucracy, at least no more than paid parking, and I am sure Deputy Stewart will agree with me that I am sure there is an online solution there somewhere.
I do think it is funny, Deputy Ogier says it comes out of no consultation when we have been debating the pros, cons, merits or otherwise of every single method of paying for this Strategy ad nauseam for months. This option makes more sense to me now than paid parking. This will provide a guaranteed income, something that cannot be said for paid parking, certainly if it is meant to influence behaviours, which is meant to have been an intention of bringing it in. If it is
not then the Environment Department should not object to this amendment. It is not like yesterday debating about whether or not to throw out paid parking. This is a positive amendment, and I support it wholeheartedly.