parking consultation: updates || your views in captivity (pdf file) || Ashley Rd carpark
Please read Peter Hickman's article, and consider the points below, then complete the form to send in your comments. We'd like to learn your views whether you are a resident, or come to Thames Ditton to work or shop or simply to catch a train to elsewhere. Please help us to identify which category you are in.
You may also wish to discuss issues in the forum.
Problems caused by parking around the village include:
- Parking in Basingfield Road by mothers leaving and collecting children from the Junior School. Problem: Causes congestion for residents, and bad parking on the kerb breaks down the kerbstones. Extent of problem: only during half-hours either side of school starting / finishing. Possible solutions: restricting parking, residents' parking. Balancing considerations: would require enforcement, hence revenue. Would displace parking to other areas close to the school. And busy mothers, particularly with more than one small child, often do need to be able to use their cars for drop-off and pickup, even though the school catchment area is all within close range of the school.
- Parking in Speer Road by mothers leaving and collecting children from the Infants' School. Problem: causes congestion outside the school, on a bus route at drop-off and pickup times only. Possible solutions and balancing considerations as above.
- Parking in Speer Road, Weston Green Road, Embercourt Road, Basingfield Road and Ashley Road by commuters catching trains from the station. Problem: causes congestion; bad parking impedes buses on all but Ashley Road; bad parking at the junctions by the station causes problems for mothers crossing roads when walking children to school. Prevents residents of Church Walk without garages from finding a space along Speer Road or Ashley Road. Possible solutions: residents' parking; some double yellow lines at strategic points; enforcing no-parking rules for one hour in the day to prevent commuters parking all day for free. Balancing considerations: requires enforcement, hence revenue; important for Thames Ditton and Weston Green to maintain the railway station's viability, which is less assured than that of Esher, Surbiton and Hampton Court stations.
- Parking in High Street, Watts Road, the bend in Station Road, Ashley Road, and Summer Road by shoppers, people who drive to work in Thames Ditton, and Islanders. Problems: causes congestion along High Street and Watts Road (but only in rush-hours); makes parking difficult for residents of those roads. Possible solutions: residents' parking; enforcing no-parking rules for one hour of the day to prevent all-day parkers; double yellow lines at intervals along Watts Road, to enable passing cars to weave in and out. Balancing considerations: need to keep the High Street shops viable; freeing the flow of traffic during rush hours would be likely to lead to more and faster traffic.
In all these cases, implementing restrictions requires meaningful enforcement which would have to be paid for. There will be no net financial benefit from imposing residents' parking fees or any other fees for parking, as the revenue is likely to be fully absorbed by paperwork and enforcement. The sole benefit of raising revenue, therefore, is more effective enforcement. It is more effective to enforce a rule such as 'no parking between 1000 and 1100' than it is to enforce 'residents' parking only' as the former requires inspection for one hour a day and the latter requires inspection over many hours of the day.
You might also give a view on whether making the Ashley Road car park a pay-and-display car park has been successful. Arguments for: people pay to park in other Elmbridge wards, so they should pay in Thames Ditton too; when free, the car park was being used by commuters driving to Thames Ditton and walking to the railway station with little benefit to the village (other than contributing to the viability of the station). Arguments against: use of the carpark now seems to be less, and drivers are parking on the streets; viability of the station is important. Should similar charges be applied to the car park by the Library?