Ruddington residents, traders and visitors won’t have to pay to use the Church Street Car Park. That was the decision reached unanimously by Councillors at a full meeting of Ruddington Parish Council on Tuesday 30th January. However that is not going to be the end of the story…
Currently the only car parking charges in Ruddington are at our Country Park where new pay & display machines with a nominal £1 fee were introduced by Rushcliffe Borough Council in their visitor car park last summer. With our increasing village population, the idea of fees being introduced by the Parish Council was mooted as a way of discouraging motorists from parking for long periods in their village centre car park, next to the Co-op.
It’s been noted that on weekdays an average of fifteen spaces are being taken up by people leaving their vehicles there all day – presumably whilst they’re at work. It was suggested to Councillors that drivers should still be allowed to park there for two hours for FREE – as in many of our village centre streets – but that daytime charges could be applied beyond that. A minimum fee of £15 was proposed for anyone who wished to remain there between 6 and 8 hours as a deterrent from doing so! However this proposal was rejected last night.
Parish Council Chairman Allen Wood told RUDDINGTON.info: “It is recognised that the layout of roads in Ruddington does not lend itself to modern day car usage and locations like Charles Street, Shaw Street and Parkyn’s Street pose particular difficulties for residents that own cars. The Councillors recognised that hard decisions will have to be taken and in principal accepted that some form of charging system for our car park may be necessary along with other measures that alleviates some of the residents issues, therefore other options will be investigated and a report brought back to a future meeting.”
The decision will come as a relief to dozens of Ruddingtonians – many of them village centre residents – who took to social media to air their views before the Parish Council meeting.
Graham Wright via RUDDINGTON.info