Graham, Tom and Ian

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Ten more short-stay parking spaces for Cheadle – and more to come

by Lib Dem team on 26 March, 2015

Graham Greenhalgh and the Lib Dem team have worked with the council to free up ten new parking spaces for short-stay parking in Cheadle village, with more to come.

The Lib Dems have been working on ways to free up parking spaces for short-stay visits in Cheadle village. Cheadle has over 400 spaces in its car parks, but with the village centre becoming busier they’re getting taken up and people sometimes struggle to find somewhere to park.

It hasn’t been an easy problem to solve. The initial thought was that more people were parking all day, perhaps to go elsewhere, but the evidence suggests that’s not true. Over 90% of the tickets bought in the car parks are for people staying three hours or less. It seems most likely that the parking problems are down to the village becoming more popular with people who want to shop, eat and drink there.

Our quick solution has been to cut down the number of commercial parking permits. There are 79 right now. Three permits aren’t being renewed by their current owners and, rather than letting someone else take them up, we’re simply getting the council to cancel them. We’ve found space in one of the contract-only car parks for another seven permits.

That means ten spaces freed up for short-stay parking: a good start, but we think we can do more. We’re meeting with the biggest permit-holder in the next week to explore how we can free up more spaces over the next few months and we’ve got some other ideas we’re working on to create new spaces in the village.

 

   19 Comments

19 Responses

  1. Les Leckie says:

    Bringing some flexibility into the existing residential parking schemes will free up many more. Iain.

  2. vincent gaskell says:

    I am with you 100% on this . A tad confusing tho’ when you now say ‘evidence suggests’ You told me that the existing meters cannot provide info on how long people were staying. So how do you know 90% of people are parking for 3 hours or less ?

  3. Angie Becker says:

    This is great Iain and will help Cheadle village continue to thrive. Would there be any way a scheme could be brought in that would give say 30mins / 1hr parking free without the bother and inconvenience of finding a ticket machine? Many locals who don’t live near enough to walk would like to pop into the village quickly for the odd thing. It’s not the cost of the parking so much as the time to get the ticket when you only have limited time. Anyhow good work! By the way what will the ‘contracted parking’ people do when their spaces are no longer available where will they park? Does this not cause another issue?

  4. Mr S Powell says:

    Just up the same road that the main Cheadle Car Park i on the left hand side, continue up that nroad and on the left is a small Park with railings round which rarely seems to have any people in it – could that be converted into quite a large Car Park ?

  5. Kath hallworth says:

    Hi iain,

    The biggest contract permit holder in cheadle carparks – is this a business based within the centre of cheadle village ?

  6. Sharon Rolfe says:

    This probably means MORE people who work in Cheadle, parking in my road, and possibly across my garage door! Great!

  7. Garry says:

    Perhaps in the long term the council could investigate the site of the old coal yard. With a view to having extra parking included in any proposed station plans.

  8. Janet Holmes says:

    Does Mr. Powell refer to Brooklyn Park? If so I suggest hi s idea is a non-starter….
    With regards to the suggestion about the disused coal yard…my understanding is that the Alex. Hospital is to apply for additional parking in that area.
    What about acquiring the land near to the Library (which is used regularly as a dumping site) to extend that parking area . I have tried to find out who owns that land, so far no luck, but more spaces could be created there, and at the same time improve it.

  9. Kath hallworth says:

    thinking of who might have a large parking permit contract in Cheadle and the biggest employer I can think of is the Alex ?

  10. Graham fitton says:

    Why not use the first part of what used to be called Brookfield clinic / park facing the end of Broadway as a carpark. It would still leave a lot of green space towards the baths and we still have plentiful green spaces in Abney, and Bruntwood . Make it a free carpark for those who work in Cheadle but currently either pay or park in the side streets. These peolple would need to apply for a permit accompanied with. Information from their employer/ business. All others would pay a normal parking fee except perhaps for the first hour . This space is within easy walking distance from Cheadle and could free up the village centre parking spaces and remove cars from the side streets which are currently being used to avoid parking charges or congested carparks. I assume the council already own Broofield park

  11. Janet Holmes says:

    You refer to “contract only car parks” ….please advise which they are. Thanks.

  12. MOIRA BOWERS says:

    I think you are being very naive in thinking that the majority of parkers are short stay. Many all day parkers are running out to feed the meters every couple of hours.

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Moira – why would anyone run out to feed the meter? The fee is 20p an hour, so the cost is exactly the same either way.

      • Janet Holmes says:

        I must agree with Moira….why buy an all day ticket if your job requires you to be elsewhere…..
        Still interested in answer to the unadopted road near to the LIbrary parking area…..
        Waiting with more interest for answers on the contract only car parks ….
        Even further interest as regards the “large contract holder”

        Answers please?

  13. Iain Roberts says:

    Janet –
    – there are a number of contract only car parks around the village – generally quite small – just a few spaces. For example, there’s one on Back Massie Street and another over the road from the church.

    The large contract holder is BMI who’s UK finance division is based at Eden Place in the village.

    The unadopted space near the library is one we’re looking into, though it isn’t a quick solution due to cost, time and legal issues.

    There may be people who come and go (and for those people having more short-stay parking would make no difference), but I don’t see why anyone would park for the day and then feed the meter – it wouldn’t save them any money and would just be more hassle.

  14. Keith says:

    The day to day parking in Cheadle is getting beyond control
    The amount of trade businesses are losing though lack of parking must be upsetting for the regular traders
    All the local councillors seem interested in is GATLY as they all seem to live there!
    Cheadle needs an URGENT SOLLUTION to the car parking situation How long does the problem have to drag on ?
    The parking situation will not resolve its self!
    Look forward to a meaning full response for all the Cheadle residents and traders

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Keith, we’re working hard on ideas to improve parking in Cheadle and we’ve set out how we’re going to do it. We’ve also invited people to come up with any other ideas so please do let us know if you think we’ve missed a trick.

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