City’s car parking space signs not in a good place

Exeter’s car park space sign system is suffering from a range of problems and engineers can’t say when everything will be fully fixed.

That was the message to councillors who asked for an update after Exeter Civic Society highlighted the problems and warned of congestion in the lead-up to Christmas due to confusion of where the empty spaces are.

Monitoring by the society since August showed that the readings for Guildhall and Mary Arches car parks were always showing 872, Summerland Gate always showed 244 spaces, while on several occasions the signs were not working.

Thirteen signs on the main approach roads were installed in 2005 and are operated and overseen by Devon County Council. They work via a radio signal linked to counters in the car parks.

But highways officer Tony Matthews told members of Devon County Council’s Exeter Highways Committee one sign was not working be- cause it needed a replacement part.

The manufacturer was having a problem sourcing it because of the age of the equipment.

Another sign in Cowick Street had a problem with interference to its radio signal. The plan was to upgrade the sign and the team was waiting for a quote.

The counting systems were working in nine of the car parks, but there were problems in two.

Mary Arches Street had been affected by development work in the area and new equipment was due to be installed.

At Summerland Gate, there was a problem with two systems not communicating properly.

Mr Matthews summed up the situation: “There is a problem – not everywhere – and we are trying to resolve it.”

But he said he was unable to put a timescale on the issues being fixed because the team was waiting for suppliers.