Parking charge anger sparks showdown between Lymington Town Council and Hampshire highways

A SHOWDOWN is set between town councillors and Hampshire highways chiefs over unpopular plans to bring in parking meters to Lymington high street.

Cllr Russell Oppenheimer, the Conservative county council’s cabinet member for highways operations, promised to attend a meeting in response to a demand from Lymington and Pennington Town Council.

“We will be arranging to meet with town councillors in the near future,” he pledged, and defended the scheme which hit strong objections when it was first put forward last year before being suspended amid the pandemic.

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

Cllr Oppenheimer said: “In the meantime, I would point out that since the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, town centres across the county are becoming much busier which is creating more demand for parking spaces.

“Charging for parking will help to better manage this demand with people being more likely to park only for the time they have paid for, moving on before expiry and, thereby, freeing up parking for other users and visitors.

“Pay-and-display parking schemes are becoming the norm in the majority of cities and towns across the UK.”

He added: “The modest charges likely for on-street parking in Lymington, and elsewhere, will be consistent with the district and borough council-managed off-street car parks, which are also usually subject to a parking charge.”

HCC will put on a public exhibition later this year in the town to outline its plans, although there is no date set yet.

Lymington town councillors are unhappy as they claimed the policy will damage local businesses just as they try to recover in the wake of the crippling coronavirus pandemic.

Cllr Barry Dunning, the Tory county councillor for Lymington and Boldre since winning the seat in the May local elections, is standing against his party’s administration.

Cllr Dunning told the A&T: “HCC are yet to demonstrate to me that parking charges and restrictions will benefit our retailers.

“I welcome the public exhibition where HCC will have the opportunity to convince residents, businesses, and me, that these actions are necessary.

“Hopefully they will also listen to criticism and respond positively.”