Traffic bosses at Portsmouth City Council set to draw up city-wide parking zone plan

A CITY-WIDE plan for parking zones will be drawn up in a bid to solve what has been described as a 'no-win situation', following a lengthy debate between councillors that lasted almost two hours.
Cars ticketed by Portsmouth City Council in Jessie Road, Southsea, after parking in the new MC residents’ parking zone in January when the zone was introduced.Cars ticketed by Portsmouth City Council in Jessie Road, Southsea, after parking in the new MC residents’ parking zone in January when the zone was introduced.
Cars ticketed by Portsmouth City Council in Jessie Road, Southsea, after parking in the new MC residents’ parking zone in January when the zone was introduced.

During a Portsmouth City Council full council meeting on Tuesday members of all parties had their say on residents' parking zones in Portsmouth, concluding that a strategic plan to consider the whole city over the next five years was needed.

The proposal, brought forward by Tory councillors Luke Stubbs and Linda Symes, aimed to tackle what they called a 'piecemeal' system for zones where zones are only provided if residents ask for them.

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Speaking during the meeting Cllr Stubbs said: 'It's still the message of the (Lib Dem) administration that this can be looked at street by street, zone by zone and that displacement isn't a problem.

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'We do need a plan and also some of the details that are just going to get left and ignored like overlapping zones, that needs some form of strategy upfront.'

He was backed by Cllr Symes. 'We have lots of poorly constructed schemes here - some where there are 400 empty spaces, some where there are 200 too few,' she said.

But Cllr Lynne Stagg, the council's traffic and transport cabinet member, said she had 'inherited' the system from her Tory predecessors.

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'Apart from the fact we don't have enough officers to deal with the scheme there can only be three outcomes,' she said.

'If we have a city-wide vote in favour of the zones this means we would have to give them to people who don't want them. A city-wide vote against them would mean some people who want them don't get them.

'And if some areas want them and some don't we would implement them in areas where people are in favour and in the areas where they are not we don't - which creates the same problems we have now.'

However, she voted in favour of the plan after her amendment to the motion fell through.

In all, 20 councillors voted in favour of the plan, 14 against and one abstained.