Letter to Shepway Council about Parking Strategy

This is the letter I emailed to the cabinet members for parking at Shepway Council.


Dear Mr Dearden,

Last year I wrote to Shepway Council, using the form accessible from the website, to comment on the Parking Strategy. This was a mistake as I wasn't rewarded with a reply other than the automated response to say a communication had been received.

The point I was trying to make was that the strategy ignores motorcycles and contains no mention of them at all. As a Shepway resident, council tax payer and motorcyclist I see this as a great oversight.

In Hythe, where I live, until Sainsbury opened, and created a dedicated parking area, the only marked bays are two in the Prospect Road car-park by what is now Aldi and a small one in the Waitrose car-park. Sadly, the one at the end of Stade Street was removed when the Council decided to make the car-park “pay and display”; the motorcycle bay was removed to fit the machine!

Are there any at all in Folkestone? There used to be one by Lidl but it had almost as much broken glass and rubbish as tarmac.

Making over some of the free or time limited spaces to form a motorcycle bay wouldn’t cost too much. If they are currently free, the cost of painting the road will be minimal and as for parking management, the wardens are there in any case as other spaces could well be time limited parking. I’m thinking of The Leas (upper and lower) and Bouverie Road for instance.

I look forward to a reply this time, hence the reason for emailing you directly.

It's the opener. I have also posted it on the Hythe MAG FB page and we now need to start a letter writing campaign.

Step 2 should be a peaceful demo. Local riders parking in the free or time-limited space one Saturday morning to get public attention. 

P.S. A time-limited space is usually free but most often for one hour and then you have to drive away, with no return for one of two hours.