Council may end up in a pickle over parking

FEW issues guarantee so many differing opinions as town centre parking and if Rossendale council isn’t careful, it’s going to end up in a right pickle over its plans to get to grips with parking in the town centre of Rawtenstall.

If we start at the beginning – the problem – it’s clear something needs to be done about parking in Rawtenstall.

Even though the council has managed to pretty much replace the parking spaces lost to the new bus station development, the temporary car park close to Rawtenstall post office is just that, temporary.

It’s becoming increasingly common to see people driving round Rawtenstall, looking for a parking space and giving up and going.

That’s not good for a town centre which, in one sense, is a victim of its own success.

The problem is that in becoming a victim of its own success, it could end up driving people further away. Or maybe not that further away.

After all, you only have to drive a few hundred yards to find an abundance of parking – at Tesco, B&M, Asda and, of course, the new retail park at New Hall Hey.

There are very few towns where you will find town centre independent traders so blighted by so many supermarket and national retailer rivals within just a few hundred yards of them, all of which are much easier to get in and out of than Rawtenstall town centre.

So there’s no doubt the council has to act – but how? This is where the council has made life really hard for itself.

Go back a year or so and it was a possibility that Transdev, then just the operator of the Witch Way bus from Rawtenstall to Manchester, wouldn’t sign up to the new bus station development, the supposed catalyst for regeneration in Rawtenstall town centre.

A new bus station without one of the main bus services in Rawtenstall would cause problems, not least in terms of lost revenue the council is banking on from bus operators to make the new bus station viable.

Transdev is now on board with the bus station – good news for the council – but part of the deal is that a park and ride car park will be provided, in the town centre, for people who will travel away from the town centre.

Overall, it would appear that the Spinning Point development in Rawtenstall – taking in the new bus station, the town hall and the town square – will result in Rawtenstall having fewer parking spaces not more – something which has upset local traders.

So what can the council do? It’s talking about yet another return for disc parking, the fiddly scheme which involves you showing what time you arrived on the car park and having to leave before the time limit expires.

Even though several town centre car park signs still talk about disc parking already, it appears it isn’t enforced at the moment.

I’m not a fan of disc parking because it puts new visitors off parking, because they don’t have discs, don’t know where to get them and makes them fear they are about to get a fine while they go looking for a disc.

And what about the people who actually work in Rawtenstall - the traders?

Where will they go if three-hour limits are imposed?

Is this the start of an accidental plan which will push the parking problem further and further out, with all-day parkers going up side streets to find space?

The problem surely isn’t how to manage the parking spaces in Rawtenstall, it’s the fact there aren’t enough spaces in the first place.

If the council can’t crack the volume problem in the Spinning Point plan, then Rawtenstall really will have missed out on a big opportunity to become more attractive to passing shoppers.