Resurrecting plans to introduce parking charges to Lymington High Street 'crazy'

THE resurrection of plans to introduce parking charges on Lymington High Street has been branded “crazy” by opponents.

Conservation group The Lymington Society (LS) and the town’s county councillor, Barry Dunning, have vowed to fight the proposed move by Hampshire County Council.

“Our High Street has really suffered over the last 18 months, with 33 shops lying empty,” Cllr Dunning said. “Our retailers need help to make their outlets viable and profitable. This proposal will do nothing to help them.”

LS spokesman Donald Mackenzie added: “The society is bitterly disappointed that HCC haven’t seen the sense in suspending bringing in parking charges at a time when there are so many empty shops and the retail environment in the town is only just recovering; it’s a crazy, stupid thing to undertake.”

It has lobbied HCC deputy leader Cllr Rob Humby to explore “more ambitious plans” that “would not penalise shoppers coming to the town,” he said.

The county council took back responsibility for traffic management from New Forest District Council in 2019 and announced the intention to reduce the current one-hour free parking to 30 minutes, with two hours chargeable.

However, there was outcry from Lymington and Pennington Town Council and NFDC’s cabinet member for economic development, Cllr Michael Harris, and HCC subsequently shelved the proposal last year.

Opponents argued that in light of the adverse effect the pandemic was already having on businesses, charges would damage the local economy further.

But last Thursday, a report went before HCC’s cabinet member for highways operations, Cllr Russell Oppenheimer, recommending the move goes ahead.

It said the introduction of on-street parking was anticipated to bring in £450,000 in the coming years.

“The Covid-19 national lockdown and response phases have had a significant impact on some planned aspects of the parking project, and action is required now to secure these savings to avoid further departmental cost of change provision, with implications for other transformation work or drawing funding away from essential highways activity to meet the shortfall,” the report added.