RESIDENTS and traders were last week urged people to take their ‘last chance’ to vote on controlled parking zones.
Shops across Arundel were displaying signs calling for people to vote ‘no’ on a proposed parking zone scheme for the town.
A West Sussex County Council consultation on the plans closed on Friday (October 26).
RAPP (Residents Against Permit Parking) was formed to campaign against the plan.
Sian Lewis, from the group, said: “Similar schemes in Worthing and Chichester have made it hard for businesses and residents alike and we are desperate to stop this happening in Arundel.
“We love living here and fear this will kill the town and the independent businesses that make it so special.”
She said parking zones would make residents visitors in their own town.
“I’d have to buy a permit to park outside my own house but the scheme won’t magically create any more spaces, so I’ll just pay for the same as I get now for free,” she said.
“The scheme will also split the town right through its heart.
“As we hear about cuts to health services and education, tens of thousands of pounds are being spent on Arundel, where residents don’t want or need it. It would be far better spent elsewhere.”
Andy Heggadon, owner of Sparks Yard, in Tarrant Street, said: “It is possible to see potential benefits in WSCC’s proposed residential parking scheme. Segregation of longer-term residential parking requirements from the more short-term parking accessibility seems, at first sight, to be potentially for the benefit of both types of users.
“However, this utopian approach only works if there is sufficient car parking capacity to accommodate both.
“In Arundel there is not. Therefore both groups will inevitably be less well and more expensively served by this solution.”
David Wood CBE, also from the group, slammed the council over the consultation process, saying half the town had been left ‘disenfranchised’ until the start of this week because they were not deemed to be in the affected area.
Anyone interested in joining the campaign can email mail@ligneus.com or contact David Wood via Arundel Community Trust or call 01903 884772.
More information is also available on the Arundel Sussex Facebook page.
Joint downland county local committee chairman Nigel Peters said: “It is of major importance to this town that the right decision is made when it is decided in January at the CLC meeting.”
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