Public reject bid for standardised parking rules

Denied Proposal was quashed by the public

PORT councillor Chris Curley admits he is disappointed that his bid for a district-wide system of parking rules failed.

Proposals for standardised parking were quashed by the people of Inverclyde in a public consultation.

Inverclyde Council asked people to submit their views about on and off-street parking in an online questionnaire.

On-street plans included free parking for two hours, Monday to Friday, from 8am-6pm, with no return within 30 minutes, and a requirement for a disc to be displayed.

For off-street parking, a tiered parking charge was put forward, ranging from free for up to two hours, up to £4 for four hours and longer. A total of 464 completed surveys were returned - 91.3 per cent of them from members of the public and 8.7 per cent by local traders.

Over half of the respondents disagreed with the on-street proposals, and 72.3 per cent rejected the off-street plans.

People from Greenock provided the highest number of responses, followed by people from Kilmacolm.

Councillor Curley said: “I believe that we should have standardised parking where we can so it’s clear exactly what people have to pay.

“I suspect it’s maybe a bit of the baby being chucked out with bathwater.

“It’s does seem to be a hard nut to crack at this point in time but perhaps there will be scope in the future.”

Council leader Stephen McCabe added: “It was a laudable ambition of Councillor Curley to have a uniform system across the area.

“I wasn’t convinced that it would meet with favour from the public.

“I have no difficulty in terms of the recommendations but we can see that the ambition to have a uniform system is not universally welcomed by the public.”

Within the 2023/25 budget process, the council is proposing to increase daily off street parking charges by £1 per day to £3 per day within charging car parks.