Weston Central Residents Parking Zone

*THIS CONSULTATION IS NOW CLOSED*

Overview 

The consultation details the Resident Parking Zone (RPZ) with permits, proposed for the Weston Central neighbourhood in Weston-super-Mare. This is your opportunity to provide feedback to the Council on the RPZ proposal, let us know what you support and issues relating to features of the proposal.

The Weston Central RPZ proposal has been developed alongside another project, the Weston Central Liveable Neighbourhood. The RPZ will help reduce traffic levels within the Liveable Neighbourhood, making the area safer and healthier. Please also complete the Weston Central Liveable Neighbourhood consultation, also accessed through the 'Links' section below.

All materials in this consultation are designed to be accessible. If you need them in a different format, email us at sustainable.travel@n-somerset.gov.uk or call on 01275 884968

Parking Issues in Weston Central

The council understands that parking is a problem in the Weston Central neighbourhood, based on information from previous consultations and on-going public feedback. In 2019 parking surveys were conducted, monitoring parked vehicles at mid-morning and late evening. The results showed that at both times most streets in the neighbourhood had poor parking availability, with roughly half of the streets at full parking capacity.

Many issues contribute to the current parking situation:

• The presence of pay and display parking in nearby town centre streets, combined with no on-street parking controls in the Weston Central area, mean commuters, shoppers, tourists, and residents park on the neighbourhood streets to avoid costs.
• The Weston Central area has a high population density, partly due to larger houses which were historically family residences being converted to flats and house shares over time.
• Many residences in the Weston Central neighbourhood have driveways and front gardens which have been converted to parking areas. Roadside access for vehicles to these off-street parking facilities reduces available road space for on-street parking.
• Residential streets in the Weston Central neighbourhood area are being used for the inappropriate long-term storage of vehicles.

The scale and impact of parking issues in the neighbourhood mean some form of parking measures are necessary. The Council supports the principle of RPZ’s around areas where parking charges apply, such as Weston town centre, to help manage displacement and improve parking opportunities for residents. Any wider roll out of RPZ's in North Somerset towns will be informed by this project.

Public Engagement

At the Weston Central Liveable Neighbourhood public engagement events the council built up an understanding of residents parking needs and ongoing issues. Questionnaires and feedback forms were completed by participants and the data collected was used to influence details of necessary future parking measures. Data analysis confirmed that an RPZ with permits was the parking control option favoured by a majority of participants.

Research Informing the RPZ Proposal

Council officers built up a detailed map of the streets in the Weston Central area, through site visits, existing council data and current satellite street maps. This information was the basis for a parking analysis which identified:

• Available parking spaces.
• Disabled parking bays and if they were in use.
• On-street parking restrictions.
• Households with access to off-street parking.
• Required access for emergency vehicles and council refuse collection.

The parking analysis provided an understanding of how many parking permits could be offered for the area. UK census data provided robust estimations for the number of vehicles operated by residents in the neighbourhood area. Together this information showed council officers that an RPZ with permits in Weston Central neighbourhood area was technically feasible and likely to be effective.

Consultation Scope

The consultation details the main features of the Residents Parking Zone proposal, along with the rationale behind these choices. Opportunity is given for you to identify your level of support and add comments relating to each feature. We are particularly interested in comments that identify any issue which you think we are unaware of, or any unintended consequences which we can mitigate.

Please now select the blue button below to ‘Complete Consultation’.

Weston Central Liveable Neighbourhood consultation