Tomorrow councillors decide whether to introduce a controversial new parking scheme for residents around the Royal Sussex County Hospital. A big protest is expected by opponents as councillors on Brighton and Hove highways committee arrive to hold their debate. To help you make up your mind on the great parking row, the Argus gives the case for and against the plans. Writing in favour of the scheme is environmental services executive councillor John Ballance. Writing against is chairman of the Marine Square Residents' Association Rupert Radcliffe-Genge.

Proposal is in residents' own interest

Coun John

Ballance, environment cabinet councillor at Brighton and Hove Council, defends the new parking scheme

BRIGHTON and Hove is a densely-populated urban area between the sea and the Downs. All major developments involve difficult decisions.

The expansion of the Royal Sussex County

Hospital is one such development which will bring huge health benefits to our community. As

early as five years ago it was predicted that in

the mainly residential area of Kemp Town, where the hospital is

located, on-street parking space would be under pressure once the new facilities were fully operational.

Building works are now complete and operational, so there will be further pressure for on-street parking.

As part of the planning process, the council negotiated with the health authority to provide a residents' parking scheme. This was done in good faith to help protect

parking for residents,

who were consulted extensively about the proposals and asked for their

views.

I assure residents that we genuinely had their quality of life and their interests at heart.

We are not in the business of making life more difficult for local people.

Committed

Hospital officials were also asked to introduce green travel plans for all staff which encourage them to use alternative means of transport to and from work.

Those who say "there is no problem, why fix it?" are living for today and not looking ahead to the future.

When the residents' parking scheme comes into effect, it won't mean the system is cast in stone for ever more.

The council is committed to reviewing the scheme annually, and will make improvements where necessary.

Residents' representatives will be invited to participate in a monitoring group, which will advise the council on issues as they arise so their voices will be continuously listened to.

Let's remember this is a shared scheme - residents with permits will be able to park all day. Anyone else will be able to park for

free in two or four-hour bays.

It will operate Monday to Saturday (with the exception of bank holidays), from 9am to 6pm, so there is no need for hospital staff who work nights to worry.

If they drive, they will be able to park in a four-hour bay any time after 2pm, or in a two-hour bay any time after 4pm, and as the scheme ends at 6pm they won't have to move their car.

The first round of permit allocation, based on one permit per household, is complete without being oversubscribed.

Around 1,500 residents applied for 1,800 permits.

That means the council will be able to offer permits to other residents in need.

Applications for second car permits are currently being received and considered.

Permits will be issued free of charge for the first year. The cost for following years has yet to be set.

We are very aware of the criticisms, and indeed we have made some changes to accommodate people's wishes.

The scheme was approved in principle by the county council's highways management subcommittee in November 1996, and arrangements for its implementation have twice been approved by subcommittees of Brighton and Hove Council.

The question surely is what would people be saying if the council had sat back and done nothing, leaving residents to fend for themselves as the pressure on parking in the area grows?

'Real fury' to come if bid goes ahead

Rupert Radcliffe-Genge, of Marine Square Residents' Association, argues against the parking proposals for Kemp Town in Brighton

SO MANY things are wrong with the Kemp Town parking proposals it is difficult to know where to begin. So let's start in 1995, when East Sussex County Council consulted Kemp Town residents on behalf of the then Brighton Council.

Fewer than 10 per cent returned consultation forms. Many instead wrote individually, including Marine Square residents.

In May 1996, our residents' association also polled everyone in the Square - and 92 per cent voted to opt out because we do not have a daytime parking problem. More than 90 Marine Square letters and other communications were sent to East Sussex County Council, which responded positively.

Brighton and Hove Council's second round of consultations this year omitted Marine Square, and every one of our objections has now gone missing. Officially, no complaint about the proposals has been lodged by

any Marine Square resident.

Other Kemp Town residents' groups at last week's 400-strong protest meeting at St Mark's Chapel - which was not attended by a single council representative - said their objections had also gone missing.

Objections

The last council highway representations committee report counts only 47 written objections. It simply isn't true.

There have been more than 1,000. Our democratic right to be heard has been taken away.

We are not only angry because our objections have been "lost", we are deeply angry that our local NHS trust is being forced by the council to pay £1.25 million for a parking scheme when it faces a £390,000 deficit for the first six months of this year. £1.25 million would train 39 nurses.

The council argues the scheme stops Kemp Town being flooded by cars owned by doctors, nurses and visitors to the newly-extended hospital.

The same council stopped the hospital from building a bigger car park to solve the supposed problem.

It also cut the number

of Kemp Town street parking places from 2,600 to 1,800.

We are angry that we are being poll taxed for owning a car.

We are angry that this tax hits pensioners and the poor badly.

We are angry that visitors in cars will be restricted by council edict to 50 each year per household at £1 per permit each day.

We are angry that the elderly, infirm and disabled among us will see their carers, to put it mildly, inconvenienced.

We are angry that friends and family from outside the area risk parking fines just for visiting

us.

Above all, we are angry because the scheme will not work.

If wardens stop newly-illegal daytime parking, there will be no revenue from fines. But wardens must be paid, so residents' parking fees will rise.

Some London boroughs charge more than £400 each year - higher than the average council tax. It is madness.

Quite simply, without this scheme most parts

of Kemp Town do not have a daytime parking problem.

If councillors believe a scheme really is needed and they can make a convincing case, they should do so in consultation with residents, not ride roughshod over their expressed wishes.

Tomorrow, they should vote to suspend implementation and agree to

make progress by consensus.

It they vote to ignore us yet again, they will be inviting real fury.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.