Residents of Central Oakham are putting a petition together to preserve their residents parking bays. They pay £15 a year for the privilege of parking outside their own homes, but now councillors want to let shoppers use the spaces during the day.
The petition has over 100 signatures so far, which has been presented to the Council's Community Services Scrutiny Committee. A second peition is being put together by the residents of Dean Street, where the feeling is that the residents there are mostly young mums who need the spaces during the day.
What's your opinion of parking in Oakham? I don't live in Oakham, but I do think that it's a bit rich, in a rural community like ours, to have to pay to park outside your own house - espeically when you're payign higher rates just for being in town anyway. Either keep the bays and make them free for residents or get rid of 'em altogether and let everyone park where they will. With a grinding recession, we all need all the help we can get and parking charges are an annoying hindrance.
Certainly in Stamford you can often spend more money driving around to find a parking space than you spend on parking. But you have to have the right change. And you can no longer give your partly unused ticket to someone else. How mean is that? The space and time have been paid for, so what are the council losing out on?
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