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The plea of a councillor for an urgent solution to Tenterden’s parking crisis has struck a chord with many residents.
Cllr Sue Ferguson spoke out in last week’s Kentish Express in response to a flurry of comments posted on the Tenterden Town Forum, that Ashford Borough Council’s (ABC) parking restrictions in the town were working against residents and businesses.
Concerns were raised about office and shop workers having to park further out of town to find a space and the hostility they faced from homeowners who did not want their street clogged up with commuters’ cars.
Residents also complained about being unable to park outside their own homes as more double yellow lines are painted on Tenterden’s streets.
Sue Denton, who lives in Smallhythe Road and who always parked her car in nearby Austens Orchard, said that double yellow lines painted there on January 11 meant that she would have to cross the High Street to Westwell Court to park. The 53-year-old complained that ABC had not taken her views into account.
Cllr Ferguson, a member of the Tenterden Parking Forum, also expressed dismay that a scheme that would have allowed business users to park for £2 per day at Bridewell Lane car park had collapsed and she called for a suspension of parking regulations for a trial period to free up the town.
Richard Harvey, who lives in Tenterden, has congratulated Cllr Ferguson for highlighting the issue.
The businessman dismissed ABC’s claim that it has been working “productively” on solving parking issues and said its insistence on applying the same parking rules in Ashford as Tenterden was misguided.
He said: “Tenterden and Ashford are entirely different communities, with different parking needs. Tenterden’s economy is tourism and shopping-related, and needs much more parking than is currently available.
"Ashford has a greater proportion of office-based and manufacturing activity, and is surrounded by large industrial estates, where parking is easy.”
ABC defended its decision not to pursue the Bridewell Lane business scheme stating the car park was well used and relieved pressure on town centre streets and residential roads. The authority also said that decisions on yellow lines were always subject to consultation.