For those who have not looked at the parking proposals on the SDC website, I quote the most significant part set out in Para 4 and its clearly stated aim of forcing current free street parking into under performing Pay and Display carparks, to increase revenue.

Quote:

4. OFF-STREET PARKING

4.1 The council owns and/or operates a total of 32 car parks providing a total of 2,130 spaces. Of these, 22 car parks, with a total of 1,777 spaces are pay & display. A review of the 10 free car parks concluded that they are not currently suitable for pay and display due to their location. Car parks represent an important asset to the council. It is essential that they are managed in a way that enhances their value for the benefit of local residents and users of the car parks. We will regularly review the use of our car parks to ensure best value is achieved.

Draft Shepway District Parking Strategy

4.2 Details of all the council’s car parks and their capacity are shown in appendix 1.

4.3 Across the district there is a significant under use of the council’s pay and display car parks. On average only 10% of the maximum capacity of pay and display car parks is used. The location of car parks is a significant factor in this. Some seasonal coastal car parks are used to as little as 1% of their full capacity, with up to 90% of this during the summer. In comparison some town centre car parks in Hythe and Folkestone are used to between 20% and 35% of their capacity. There are however some notable exceptions to this where car parks are in areas with significant unrestricted on-street parking capacity, such as Leas Cliff Hall.

4.4 Increasing the use of these car parks is a key objective of this strategy.

Only a modest increase in the level of use of the council’s car parks would improve their long-term viability of these important assets and help to reduce on-street congestion. A reduction in car park charges will help to achieve this objective.

Draft Shepway District Parking Strategy

4.5 In some areas, the consistent under use of car parks has led to significantly increased parking congestion on surrounding residential and town centre streets, particularly including Sandgate and parts of Folkestone.

4.6 This strategy aims to increase the use of car parks and ease on-street congestion by a combination of lower and more locally sensitive car park charges coupled with the introduction of parking controls on surrounding streets. Reduced on street congestion will release much needed premium parking in and around our town centres for local residents and short-term visitors and shoppers.

4.7 The continued need for improvements to, and investment in, the council’s off-street car parks is needed to maintain them at a high standard. Improved standards can contribute to increasing car park use, particularly where individual car parks have benefited from resurfacing and relining or have a ParkMark award.

unquote.

This is not to say the proposals are necessarily wrong, but should be presented quite clearly as a way of increasing use of car parks and revenue .. full stop.