A team of councillors, council officers and representatives of Island Roads are to investigate options for addressing ‘parking blight’ in areas of West Newport.
Councillor Chris Whitehouse and Councillor Julie Jones-Evans yesterday (Friday) led a group including Cabinet Member for Transport, Councillor Ian Ward, to view the parking challenges in Caesars Road, Wilver Road, Sunningdale Road, Alderbury Road, Hinton Road, and other local roads which suffer from what Councillor Whitehouse terms ‘parking blight’.
Speaking after the site meeting, Councillor Whitehouse says:
“We visited roads on the outskirts of Newport which are the last, free on-street parking before the town centre where parking charges apply. As a result local residents suffer from parking blight because all the spaces can be taken by non-residents seeking to avoid the parking charges. It’s so bad in Hinton Road that on many occasions the No 38 Southern Vectis bus service cannot pass the parked cars, particularly at school run time. In Caesars Road, residents who don’t have driveways at all can struggle to find a place to park near their own home.”
Officers from Isle of Wight Council and staff of Island Roads, who manage the Island’s road network, will now undertake a study to consider whether a combination of the selective use of yellow lines to restrict parking in some roads, along with the introduction of parking spaces reserved for residents only, and a possible speed limit of 20mph might address the problem without simply moving the ‘blight’ to adjacent roads.
Cllr Whitehouse added:
“We spent four wasted years trying to persuade the previous dysfunctional independent administration to act on these problems, but because the issues were not in their wards they frankly were not interested. That is simply not good enough and we will now work with Cllr Ward and Island Roads to find a solution to this parking blight.”
