No Parking Solution

There were three articles of interest in today's Bristol Evening Post.

The first was "Noise Blunder Officer Has New Council Job" about the mistakes made by the planning department over the Ashley Waste Recycling Centre on which the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found the council guilty of maladministration. When the ombudsman made his decision the council said in a statement that the planning officer no longer worked for the council but it now transpires that he left but returned to a more senior post.

We have been told by members of the planning department that planning officers leaving the council has been a real problem making them short staffed and overworked. The planning officer for the Memorial Stadium redevelopment also resigned following the Development Control Committee Meeting where the stadium decision was made. There have been rumours that he may return to work for the council again.

Whilst it is encouraging to see that the LGO awarded damages of £2000 to each of the two complainants it is slightly worrying that they "had not yet been given any money, and had not yet heard anything from the council since the ombudsman's recommendations were made."

The second article was "New Park And Ride" which is about the shortage of parking for the new Cabot Circus shopping centre. Much of the site that the new centre is being built on was once car parks. There is a 2,600 capacity multi storey car park being built as part of the development but with an anticipated 50,000 visitors a day, this is not expected to be enough.

The proposed solution is to explore the possibility of a park and ride in north Bristol which would use the M32 to reach the new shopping centre. This is not a new idea and as ever the planners look to the UWE car park as a possible location, at least in the short term. Perhaps planners should be reminded that the UWE car park has already been earmarked as one of the sites for the Rovers supporters Park and Ride. Since Saturdays are busy retail days and football matches occur right in the middle of the day on Saturdays, there could be a problem.

The third article "Footie And Fiesta Bring Car Chaos" covers the fact that a Bristol City Football Club match occurred during the Saturday of the Balloon Fiesta and caused even greater demands on the roads and car parking in that side of the city causing gridlock right through the centre to Temple Way. Apparently 100,000 people went to see the balloons on Saturday (that gives some perspective on the 50,000 shoppers a day expected at the Cabot Centre) and 19,000 to see the football.

The article leads with "Dozens of cars parked around Ashton Gate and the Cumberland Basin were towed away on Saturday afternoon when Bristol City's first game of the season clashed with the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta."

"Dozens" does not sound like a lot of cars when one considers how many cars must have been in the area and illegally parked. This does not bode well for parking enforcement around the Memorial Stadium if it takes an influx of 119,000 people to generate just "dozens" of car towings.

The article talks about the web site that allows owners of private land to sell parking time on that land. This site was used to create an extra 400-space car park at the Cala Trading estate for the football supporters. Hopefully that scheme can be expanded to provide parking at many of the other private car parks around the Ashton Gate stadium.

Unfortunately there are no equivalent sites near the Memorial stadium. Horfield and Bishopston are primarily residential areas. There is virtually no public parking (other that on-street) with the 20 space car park on Gloucester Rd just south of Somerville Road being the only public car park within the 1.5km radius of the stadium. The Civil Service Club car park off Filton Avenue just past Muller Rd is private and is already used for Rovers staff and VIPs by arrangement. The Horfield Sports Centre has a 170 space car park but this is for use of visitors to the centre. The car park at the Lime Trees Road TESCO is for the use of its customers and since the shop is open whenever there are matches there is little scope for use as a match day car park. This TESCO is currently seeking to expand the shop which will reduce the capacity of the car park. There are also parking spaces at the County Cricket Club and Brunel College just inside the 1.5km radius. There are simply no other car parks private or public in the area.