Referendum call as plan for parking resurfaces

RESIDENTS are demanding a referendum on plans for permit parking in their neighbourhood.

A campaign has been launched after Leicester City Council’s third attempt to bring in permit parking in streets around Queens Road, in Clarendon Park.

Officials say the experimental scheme, due to come in in the early part of this year, is designed to stop commuters who want to avoid parking charges from filling up the narrow Victorian roads, causing congestion.

However, opponents have accused the council of using it to generate cash and ignoring the views of residents who have twice before been asked to take part in local votes on similar measures and twice rejected them.

Now an online petition has been launched which calls for “an immediate pause” on the plans until a further democratic vote has been held.

Critics say the proposal will not solve the problem, but merely push commuters into different streets.

Kelan Atkinson, one of the objectors, used a Freedom of Information inquiry to establish that the city council had received only 14 requests for residents’ parking in Clarendon Park in the past three years.

He said: “The council have tried to install this system twice before, with two previous votes on the matter - both overwhelmingly against, notably 71 per cent against in 2016.

“Despite this, the scheme has been forced through dramatically over the past three months, during a global pandemic.”

The petition, on the change.org website, has so far been signed by more than 200 people.

A city council spokesman said: “Ward councillors in the area have asked us to look at ways to tackle commuter parking, and we are looking at introducing a restriction on non-residents parking there between 9.30am and 10.30am on weekdays.

“This would stop commuters from outside the area using the streets to park for free all day, but would have less impact on businesses than a full residents’ parking scheme.

“It would be an experimental scheme, allowing us to adjust it to meet local needs, or stopping it altogether if residents felt it wasn’t working.

“We are in discussions with local ward councillors and businesses about how such a scheme would work, but would hope to implement it early this year.”