Residents and a council are furious Parking charges will be extended across Eastbourne for a trial period.

East Sussex County Council decided to extend the controlled parking zone around Eastbourne to include a further 45 streets at a meeting despite almost 5,000 letters of objection from residents and businesses.

Eastbourne Borough Council said the county council has not listened to the people.

Leader of Eastbourne Borough Council, Coun Ian Lucas said: "This council rejects the parking proposals put forward by the county council. We believe they go too far in a number of aspects and residents, businesses, volunteers and the community have similar concerns. But the county council is still intent on going through with it."

The Civil Parking Enforcement will include the extension of on-street parking charges around the town centre and an area of Meads.

Consultation will go on during the trial period before any charges are made permanent.

The schemes would lead to parking being restricted to certain times of day and for certain lengths of time.

The seafront will have pay-and-display charges seven days a week and the trial schemes could be in place by late 2007.

Public consultation has been carried out but the Eastbourne Green Party said there was "huge town-wide opposition" to more areas having parking charges.

But County Councillor Matthew Lock, Lead Member for Transport and Environment, said: "It was not a referendum on whether or not Eastbourne should have a parking scheme, but a consultation to find out where residents have problems parking in their street and consequently would like to have some form of parking controls.

"We now plan to introduce a parking scheme on a trial basis.

Introducing the scheme on a trial basis means everyone affected will be able to help us fine tune the scheme and ensure it truly reflects the views and needs of local residents and businesses.

"We also want to make sure the scheme benefits businesses by ensuring valuable parking spaces are not clogged up with commuters. Nobody pretends parking controls will be a remedy, but the present free-for-all is madness and is disastrous for business. Something needs to be done.

Monday, July 17, 2006