Big changes are scheduled for the Island’s pay and display parking zones — as charges increase and free-parking periods are removed.
As approved in the Isle of Wight Council’s budget in February, savings and income generation will create nearly £800,000 but change parking conditions in many tourist hotspots.
Charges on esplanades across the Island will be extended to all-year-round, getting rid of the period in winter, between November and March where people can park for free.
This means Culver Parade and the Esplanade in Sandown, Shanklin Esplanade, Ventnor Esplanade and Queens Road in Cowes will all follow in the footsteps of Ryde Esplanade, to generate income all year round.
The council said in budget papers extending the charges may support a higher turnover of spaces and also encourage drivers not to park on the street but use car parks to help improve the free flow of traffic.
New pay and display charges will be introduced on Egypt Esplanade, in Cowes, as well as along Princes Esplanade, in Gurnard, where it is currently free to park.
Gurnard Sailing Club has expressed fears the proposal could have a negative impact on its members because, with no on-site parking, members would have to pay £8.60 to park for six to eight hours.
The Isle of Wight Council has issued a public notice, alerting residents to the changes, having consulted with the police.
Off-street long and short stay car parks will increase by roughly 20p per hour with the on-street pay and display parking tariff also going up and the reintroduction of a 30-minute waiting period for £1 — which the council hope will see a high turnover in spaces, supporting high street businesses.
As well as that, the price of parking permits for residents and tourists will rise by 20% and also for council staff who wish to park in the council’s car park at work.
One of the biggest changes will be to parking permits for council car parks — previously there has been multiple permits for different uses. Now, however, the council are cancelling all previous permits to create one single annual pass introduced at a cost of £600, nearly doubling what some people previously had to pay (£324.50).
The new permit will allow for 24-hour long stay and up to 2 hours in short stay car parks, and is predicted to generate more than £150,000.
Anybody who wishes to oppose the above changes can write to Scott Headey, the traffic manager, via email on [email protected] or at St Christopher House, 42 Daish Way, Newport, PO30 5XJ, no later than Friday 18th September 18.
Well done council that should kill off all the the seaside towns but hey you must need the money for yet another pay rise or some building program on the island
How many more charges are going to rise on the island ? Parking, council tax ! Both undisputable charges? For what benefit? No extra services, are they raising their workers wages? Or just to cover their blatant mismanagement?
Another nail in the coffin for the high street. People will do more on-line ordering and shopping Clever council
Increasing charges WILL encourage drivers into the car parks and WON’T encourage drivers to park on the street?
On what planet exactly?
That’s even less credible than when they claim the floating bridge us reliable.
We’re not idiots – please at least pay us the courtesy of making your claims at least vaguely credible.
Opposing the move is pointless since you will just ignore the objections as you always do.
Getting the decision called in for scrutiny is pointless since you always ignore their recommendations.
All I can do is wait for the next election to roll round and hope that enough of us use our vote to send a message you can’t ignore.
Same everywhere i have relations In Cambridge to park all day in town costs 35 pounds so it’s not bad here.think of season tickets on trains food ,petrol. Nothing gets cheaper but we have a choice about parking.
Are you for real? You obviously have a driveway or off road parking. This will just drive everyone to park in residential streets leaving us residents nowhere. People will not park in car parks especially with those fees going up too and the car park permits are extortionate . More money in councils pocket to waste away. They haven’t a clue. They seem desperate to kill off the high streets while claiming they’re trying to save them. Don’t they get that more people will use car parks if they make the charges reasonable. Lots of residents used to park overnight in them as there was nowhere else and now that costs them £30 a month cos of the overnight fee. How do they expect us all to afford it . They are useless and as for challenging it what is the point ? They never listen to the people they are supposed to be serving.
Here we go again. Tory ineptitude. They are so limited in their ideas. Just shows how out of touch they are with island people. The council is there to support the island and help local people. The reasons they give for the increases are pathetic. Where does these increase go. We dont see any increase in standards of council services.
Rant over, but not forgotten at next election.
Totally agree. What the council seem to forget though is how many of the allocated “affordable” houses will actually pay council tax?
Me, no, trust me, I know. They ‘have’ thought of the fact that many on social housing don’t pay any or much council tax, BUT the council then get this back from central Government, so they still get their pound of flesh.
Same with the pittance rent they pay, all made up by the state (us).
So that is why they are so keen to have plenty of social housing as the council tax is assured for them.
Mainland councils will then pay our council to take their overspill, and as anyone sensible would do, they then rid themselves of the worst kind of tenant.
But as the developers, planners and top councillors will be living no where near the horror they inflict upon other and ruin beautiful wildlife, they could not care less, as they are all much richer and miles away living a very different life from most.
Explains alot.thanks.
Affordable Housing, is not Social Housing. Affordable Housing can be built by anyone and sold to anyone, Social Housing is built by a Council or Housing Association and rented. There are no Social Housing builds planned anywhere on the Island at the moment. Mainland councils do not, and have not ever paid IW Council for overspill. A urban myth that never goes away.
Absolute disgrace from this so called council I suppose we have to pay for Floating Bridge debacle.
Dig deep plenty of money is needed for the floating catastrophe!
Great for cleaners and gardeners going about their business at princes parade Gurnard. Damn greedy council !!
Can anyone have a debate without talking about pennyfeathers its been years if you can’t join the debate without talking about pennyfeathers don’t bother.maybe if they built it you would drop it.trust me i don’t want it just fed up with listening to people with nothing else to say.
I agree Stu. Any article posted on by the Echo invariably gets a ‘Pennyfeathers’ reference thrown in by commenters at some point. Even an article on the weather recently got one. I’d advise rather than using the Echo as a base, go set up a blog and create a wider discussion platform where you are likely to get more support and traction.
Spot on even garden sales in brading is the fault of an unbuilt housing estate.
Yep, and that fallen tree in Havenstreet……
Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed!
Disgusting when going down to beaches dogs are on no go areas on all beaches especially Ryde notices up regarding a fine. Could the council let us know how many fines there have been this summer . I would be interested as have been told by a council worker that they do not even have a dog warden and people know it. Actually heard a residential tell someone on holiday from London don’t worry let your dog go anywhere no one worries. So council make some money with people braking the law not the poor old car owners in the winter months.
Ask in a freedom of information request – They hate those!
You can e mail and disagree as offered ,,,,, won’t make bind bit of difference .
I said before they need a good money manager as keep hiking prices up is a sure sign of bad management of income.
Hiking prices is the easy way out , the public will only take so much .
Will just push more people to park in residential streets all year round. Making it hard for people to park near their home.
What i can’t understand with this change is that the only people who will be penalised are Island residents as it is outside of the main tourist season. I would imagine in any case that the amount of revenue brought in will be minimal compared with the Summer months. Comes across as both insulting and penny-pinching.
The council have obviously decided that merely rinsing the tourists in the summer is not enough, when they can do the same to residents all year round. It will just create further hardship to businesses in the areas concerned, which helps no one. The tourists themselves will inevitably go elsewhere if these above inflation price hikes continue, as they already pay a fortune to bring their cars over in the first place.
Tourist.numbers will drop so they have to get money from somewhere
…obvious!
Then they wonder why the high streets are dying
That’s more to do with “out of town” shopping-centre planning.
I quote “A flat rate of £2 at the Somerton Park and Ride in Cowes will be introduced.”
and i thought the bus fare included the parking ! ! !
It will now be cheaper NOT to park there and catch the bus from Newport to Red Jet now.
Just park in a nearby street or the industrial estate for free then walk down………… Sorted.
Exactly. A residential road where the homeowners can’t park anywhere near their house. A nightmare if you have young kids and lots of shopping.
Sadly, this is hard to view as anything but lazy council money grabbing. What makes it worse is the direct attack on Islander’s finances.
While I’m sure the council’s additional income from this isn’t a great lot of money in the scheme of things, a pound or two could be a significant sum for some less fortunate people to have part with.
To all those posting negative comments, look at the positives….there will be no increase in the purchase of brown envelopes……
Screwed again.
I don’t travel much on the mainland these days but one thing which is always a nice surprise is how reasonable parking charges are compared to the Island, at least that’s what I’ve found. Island parking charges are disgraceful
From now on I will use as many private car parks as possible I’d rather give them the money rather than the council and they charge less than the council in most cases
Stopped using local shops this year , buying on line saves me paying for car parking
Scrooge
Not Scrooge but someone like many of us who need to find good deals and cant afford to pay these fees and that’s what will start happening everywhere. Local shops have no chance anymore. It’s really sad for the island
Wise! Not a Scrooge.
We are £2 trillion on debt. Central Government will reduce cash to local authorities, so councils need to raise cash. Get ready for higher taxes etc. in the future.
Here is a thought for anyone who objects to parking charges. By an electric buggy, if you have a health condition you will not have to pay any V.A.T. Certain classes have to be registered with the D.V.L.A but no tax is paid. Most of the larger buggies have a range of about 30 miles on the ‘flat’ and are street or road legal (they have a switch from pavement to road speed) You do not have to pay for parking, can park almost anywhere, it is advisable to get insurance, about £80 pounds a year for good cover. Stick a friendly hand gesture up to the council. I have one of these,it looks like a ‘chopper’ bike complete with all the chrome, it is classed as ‘off road’ and therefor is suitable for all bridle ways and most country foot paths as well as town travel.
Can’t fit your family on one though!
Do you use it in the rain lol!
Well the IoW council do need some way of raising money to pay for their cocaine that they snort out of each other’s @ssholes.
All island residents should boycott council car parks during the winter months
WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA NOT
Just kill the highstreet shops and tourist industry
Do they not get what they are doing or is it just a payrise project
And i bet all council workers will pay nothing when parking yet the backbone workers of the island will get stung for trying to keep this island up and running
Council workers have to pay to park their cars at work.
The long stay car parks are free after 6pm, is this remaining?
I thought they were £1 overnight?
Yes, but if you’re only going to be there for an hour or so walking the dog. Don’t need a ticket, not staying over night. Well…. errr…. well never been given a parking ticket for not having one.
If it’s anything to do with IW council I doubt it very much
Simple solution, online for any shopping needs abandon the high streets use takeaway delivery most restraunts now offer this service, it’s about time this council
Thought about the local residents for once and offered some lower costs for us, but I suppose that would be to much to expect.