You will soon need a resident’s permit to park in the Hanover or Elm Grove area, which has been dubbed ‘Brighton’s last free car park’.
The new parking zone is likely to be approved by councillors next week, and could come into effect as early as this autumn. It’s the result of a resident’s consultation where 60 per cent voted in favour of the scheme – but voter turnout was only 37 per cent.
The bottom of Elm Grove and streets from William Clark Park west to Lewes Road and up to Bear Road Read will all get a full-on scheme, meaning those without resident’s permits won’t be able to park between 9 am and 8 pm seven days a week.
The top of Elm Grove, including the streets around the racecourse, will likely get a ‘light-touch’ scheme which will see permits required from 11 am to noon and 6 pm to 7 pm. There will be no pay-to-park spaces in the area, either. This is in spite of the so-called top-triangle voting ‘no’.
Those in favour of the scheme are glad to be able to claim their road space back from non-residents trying to dodge permit fees. One Hanover man wrote: “There won’t be non-permit holders trawling the streets of Hanover in the mornings to dump their car there for the day, hopefully allowing the people who live in the area to actually be able to park within a street or two of their house.”
Committee chair Cllr Gill Mitchell said: “Hanover and Elm Grove is suffering artificially high demand for parking because it is surrounded by other residents’ parking zones. A parking scheme would give these streets back to the residents and make the area much more pleasant.”
But not everyone’s so happy with the result, with many complaining of gentrification and wondering what will happen if relatives want to visit.
One Brighton trader wrote: “I already pay £640 a year for my trader’s parking permit, this allows me to park anywhere in Brighton until 5pm. So I will now need to spend even more money buying another permit to cover the one hour between 6-7 on the light touch scheme to allow me to leave my van outside my house!”
“In other words, it’s another way of getting more money from residents of Hanover,” commented another Hanoverian.
So, what do you think of the developments? Let us know in the poll below and in the comments.
[Total_Soft_Poll id=”8″]
For a breakdown of votes by area, click here. For the full council report, click here.
Featured image by Graham Laurence.
It’s a revenue-raising scheme. The council has gradually been tightening the noose on Hanover by introducing parking schemes all around. The pressure has become so much that the residents eventually caved in