Introduction of Car Park Charges in Richmond Park and Bushy Park

By OFadero | Friday, January 15, 2010, 17:06

Today Margaret Hodge, Minster for Culture, Sport and Media, announced that Car Parking charges would be implemented in Richmond and Bushy Parks later this year.

Richmond Park

Even though 8 out of 10 people who answered the consultation disapproved of the charges, the Minister has decided to ignore them and go ahead.

The charges are described as being "affordable" by the Royal Parks at £3 (£1 per hour) for parking in Richmond Park and £2 (50p per hour) in Bushy Park. This is due to research revealing that 86% of car park users are in the three socio-economic groups.

There will be no 6 hour maximum stay as implementing this was thought as more likely to cause displacement of parking into the surrounding streets.

However those who live near the park gates in Kingston, have argued due to Kingston Council only implementing residents parking zones at certain times and days of the weeks, there will be displacement of parking outside these times anyway.

Money from the charges is intended to improve the roads and car parks.

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Comments

TheParkie you know you can write your own article on here stating what you know about the situation (just click on the write link at the top). As Zac Goldsmith's people sent me the press release they will definitely see what your sensible view is, and so will the rest of Kingston.

By OFadero at 12:30 on 01/02/10
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Some time ago it was suggested to both Susan Kramer and Zac Goldsmith that instead of playing political games they did something constructive, namely raise the £1.4 million locally thereby removing the tenuous justification for making the parking charges in Richmond Park. Other facilities in the park e.g. the Tamsin Trail have been paid for privately and the Royal Parks Foundation (of which ZG is a trustee) and the Richmond Park Charitable Trust exist to make such donations tax-efficient. Mrs Kramer has a background in banking raising large sums of money at short notice and as for Zac Goldsmith well there are arguments over how many hundreds of millions he has access to! And he is not necessarily the wealthiest Richmond resident. There are other contenders, the best-known of whom is Mick Jagger who lives just down the road from the park who at least has a history of things being free in royal parks.

The upshot of this initiative so far is... precisely nothing, which puzzles me greatly because it's fairly obvious that whichever well-connected candidate can deliver this solution before the forthcoming election is on to a winner.

Another solution is to raise this money by public subscription but it looks increasingly as though the highly-educated residents don't have the nounce to do it. The cost of avoiding parking charges is a one-off £25 per elector which equates to a handful of visits under the proposed charging regime. The alternative is to carry on paying them in perpetuity so in theory it's a no-brainer. 60% of Richmond Park (the constituency)'s electorate have already benefited from free state-funded university education, the highest in the country. So there's no lack of brains there. Or perhaps a degree is over-rated?

By TheParkie at 07:10 on 01/02/10
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I 'd add to this by saying that I cycle in the park every sunday and I am absolutely sick of people in huge SUVs and 4x4s barrelling along these tiny roads and causing real danger to cyclists and pedestrians alike, especially as they choose to turn into the carparks without indicating. The very modest fee seems pointless to me. A ban on cars inside the park seems would be a great idea!

By RolyB77 at 13:08 on 30/01/10
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reesmf I don't tend to walk or cycle round the parks and neither do lots of other users of them. Yes I'm being pedantic but there are lots of different things you can do in the parks and not everyone uses them for just a "walk or a cycle." I am sure you are aware that there are lots of sports facilities in both Richmond and Bushy Parks Both parks have rugby pitches while Bushy Park also has football, hockey and cricket pitches. Visiting amateur sports teams aren't always able to use public transport to get to their away games and have to park in the public car parks. I should also add that there are also wheelchair athletes who use the parks to train in. Amateur sports people come from every walk in life, and with an obesity problem in this country making it more expensive for people to use sporting facilities isn't helpful.

By OFadero at 22:26 on 24/01/10
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I was not going to rejoin the debate but as some incorrect assumptions have been made about my motives and knowledge I feel the need to comment again. I would hardly dare to call my self an expert on children or the disables but I have had two children and I do have a disabled wife, so I am not completely ignorant of the subject. But that is not really the point that I was trying to make - all I was saying is that if you have difficulty in walking (for whatever reason) then I am perplexed as to why you would be so keen to go to Richmond Park where the whole point is to walk or cycle. And if you are able to walk then there are other ways of getting there by car. Similarly my Local Government experience is less than others but I can claim 12 years in total spread between Dorset Country Council and LB Lambeth and, frankly, I would claim local government has any great experience of consultations; all the ones I have seen are also treated, incorrectly, as referenda. Besides, we also need to consider those who chose not to oppose the changes and the assumption has to be that they are, at least, not bothered. That makes the opposition really quite small.

By reesmf at 20:56 on 24/01/10
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