Cabinet approves parking strategy

Windsor: Questions over parking zones and charges

The Royal Borough's parking strategy was adopted at a cabinet meeting last week, one month after it was originally due to be presented to councillors.

Councillor David Cannon (Con, Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury), the council's lead member for parking, presented the strategy on Thursday, November 26, which details all things car parking in the borough up to 2025.

The paper was due to be debated at October’s cabinet, but was deferred at late notice.

Cllr Amy Tisi (Lib Dem, Clewer East) told cabinet she ‘welcomed’ the report, but it was ‘a little bit light on detail’.

“I think some of my residents might be a little disappointed that it does not solve all their parking woes overnight, but I like that it sets out the direction of travel,” she said.

Cllr Tisi asked whether parking tariffs will be standardised across the borough, and also questioned the existing Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) – areas where on-street

parking is restricted during specified times.

Cllr Tisi referred to a section of the report surrounding the possibility of the council making these zones ‘shared-use’. This allows the public to park in these spaces at times when resident use is low.

“This has got the potential to go wrong. I would like

Cllr Cannon to tread carefully there and consult with residents if possible,” Cllr Tisi said.

The Clewer East councillor’s last question related to Resident Parking Zones (RPZs).

She argued that these have been created in a ‘haphazard’ way and called for a full review.

With regards to parking tariffs, Cllr Cannon said there were ‘strange variances’ across the borough and that Windsor has ‘historically’ experienced higher car parking charges than other areas.

On CPZs, he said the scheme would be a way of using up ‘day-time capacity’, which he said the borough will have when the ‘world returns to its normal state’.

“With lots of people being encouraged to work from home, that is something we will not be bringing in at this stage,” he said.

“But when we return to any form of normality, there will be periods of time where [some of them] may have the ability to move to shared use.”

Finally, on the issue of RPZs, Cllr Cannon acknowledged that these had been created in a ‘piecemeal manner’ by former colleagues.

“We now need to go and review all the existing ones to see what the impacts are in surrounding streets,” he added.

The idea of a borough Park and Ride was also floated later in the meeting by Cllr Helen Taylor (TBF, Oldfield).

Cllr Cannon said: “It is something that is on the radar for us to look at. But again, finances may push it back. It’s not going to be next week.”