Brighton: Plan to scrap 'light touch' parking to be reviewed

The Brighton and Hove City Council budget was created by the former Green-led administration in February.

It included a plan to convert the "light touch" areas into full schemes. The light touch areas have just a couple of hours a day - usually one in the morning and one in the afternoon - when only residents can park there. The aim is to stop non-residents leaving their cars all day.

Full schemes operate all day and have a mix of permit holder bays and bays where non permit holders can pay to park for a limited time.

The proposal to make all the schemes full, which councillors backed earlier this year, would be implemented over four years and also include combining zones.

The plan, which the council forecast would help save £300,000, could risk “possible resident concerns about increasing hours and complaints about currently under-utilised zones becoming more full”, councillors were warned in a budget meeting earlier this year.

Should the change come about, some residents could face a hike of more than 45 per cent for a year-long parking permit, amounting to an extra £105. Full scheme permits cost more than light touch permits.

The new Labour council, however, has signalled it will meet to discuss the programme “as part of a wider review of parking in the city”.

Proposals passed by councillors at this year's budget have caused upset among some residents (Image: The Argus)

It comes as residents raised concerns about the prospect of light touch schemes being scrapped, as well as criticism of the council’s approach to consultation on the plans.

Alan Phillips, who lives in the Surrenden area of Brighton, covered by the Zone 10 parking zone, said neighbours were being consulted on whether their area should remain in a light touch parking scheme "until it is due to be changed" or to be moved into a full scheme sooner - with no option to remain a light touch.

Mr Phillips said: “I was opposed to the original introduction of a parking scheme for the Surrendean area and found during the city council’s initial consultation that we were not given the option to say no to the scheme. The only choices were for a full parking scheme or a light touch parking scheme so in most people’s view it did not represent a true consultation.

“In the event, the light touch scheme came into effect in February 2022 and has been relatively easy to live with.

“However, I have now received another of the city council’s invitations to what they have the audacity to term a 'consultation'.

“A true consultation is where people are able to express their full views and are not forced to choose the lesser of two evils that have been presented to them.

“The decision was not driven by any need to change or attempt to improve the parking situation nor the lot of the area’s residents in general, it is purely and simply an anti-motorist revenue-raising scheme.”

• READ MORE: Hikes in parking fees to be reviewed following outrage by residents

Councillor Trevor Muten, chairman of the council’s transport and sustainability committee, said: “A five-year programme to change all light touch parking schemes to full schemes was agreed by budget council in February of this year.

“However, councillors and council officers will soon be meeting to discuss this programme as part of a wider review of parking in the city.

“Separately, parking schemes that have been introduced recently are being reviewed as part of the normal review process after a year or so of implementation.”

Residents in Zone 10, which covers parts of Surrenden and Varndean, can make their views known on the council’s website, with the consultation closing on September 10.