Pay parking in Chatteris, March, Whittlesey and Wisbech would pay for traffic wardens and alleviate problems

A Fenland Citizen letter writer has called for the introduction of pay parking and traffic wardens in our towns…

I would like to comment on the article headlined: ‘Councillors want police to do more to tackle illegal parking in town’.

Illegal parking has become a big issue in Whittlesey, with councillors urging police to do more to tackle the problem.

At the recent town council meeting, councillors raised concerns about vehicles parking where they should not be, which could become a danger to people.

Cllr Ray Gerstner told other councillors that he has received a lot of complaints about the amount of illegal parking in the town.

He said: “People are parking to go to either the restaurants or the pubs in the area. It seems very prevalent these days.”

Cllr Dee Laws said she is delighted the police have been issuing tickets “at long last” and going for “enforcement rather than education, but it’s not enough.”

Illegal parking is a problem in all four towns of Fenland. So what can be done?

Well, Fenland District Council should bring back traffic wardens. Whilst the police can only do so much, their resources are limited, and their time would be better spent catching real criminals such as drug dealers.

If Fenland Council employed four traffic wardens (one for each Fenland town) at £25,000 per year per traffic warden, it would cost a total of £100,000 per annum.

How could this figure be paid for? The answer lies in Fenland Council introducing pay parking in the four Fenland towns.

I have lost count of the number of times that I have been asked in the Somers Road car park in Wisbech by visitors to the town - “Where do we pay?”

I always reply that: “Fenland Council have been thinking about pay parking for more than 40 years, but district councillors have been too frightened to introduce it.”

In Chatteris there are 115 parking spaces (including seven disabled bays). In March there are 373 spaces (including 14 disabled bays and six lorry bays). In Whittlesey there are 262 spaces (including 18 disabled bays). In Wisbech there are 869 spaces (including 28 disabled bays).

I gather the cost of maintaining car parks in Fenland amounts to £500,000 per annum. Car drivers should be made to pay the cost of maintaining the car parks (£500,000 per year) and the cost of four traffic wardens (£100,000 per year).

£600,000 per annum from 1,500 spaces (excluding disabled and lorry bays) would require an income of £400 per space per year. This works out at £2 per space per weekday.

I also gather that successive governments have tried to get Fenland Council to introduce pay parking without success. If pay parking is good enough for Peterborough and King’s Lynn, it is good enough for the four towns of Fenland.

Pay parking would pay for traffic wardens across Fenland, and help solve the problem of illegal parking, including in Whittlesey.

John Smithee

Wisbech