Mind you if you did want a permit here that’s gonna cost you £80/month from Friday, I wonder if you can get in there before Friday and secure yourself a great deal on a yearly season ticket? Shame on you Walsall Council, giving non resident permit scheme holders the “option” of paying £800 a year (from May 1st) to park on a Saturday? It’s Saturday that is mostly of concern because most residents who commute to work don’t really park on a weekday as such and Sunday is generally a stress free day and the short stay bays are perfect for us on a weekday evening. It’s Saturday when we get stung, so why £800 just for Saturday parking? Traders may “benefit” from another cost to their business because they would need to park during ON PEAK times but for residents it seems very inconceivable that a whooping £800 a year is feasible. Do you know that’s almost a doubling of a residents council tax? Overnight, nice one Walsall nice one, didn’t you say this WASN’T about generating revenue? Doesn’t feel that way if we are honest here, feels like being robbed of money we don’t have.

More on the charge increases coming soon! Remember Friday May 1st a shocking increase is coming for long stay car parks (with minimal increases for short staying parkers, ie not residents or traders), forcing residents who aren’t covered by any schemes, to pay £5 a day just to park not even remotely close to where they live!!

This is yet another one of those opportunities going to waste, residents may take up a discounted long stay permit, if it was restricted to a handful of long stay car parks, I mean who wants to drive past where they live, park half way across town and walk back to where they live in the pouring rain, just to avoid getting a parking fine in short stay? Madness. Options are there, let’s use em!

The area is so much safer now that most of the cars have been scared away, good work! Here’s hoping the good news extends to some help for the residents and traders of the town who are about to be whacked over the head with a plastic cup, well maybe not, but there are hefty charge increases on the way for Friday!

Was wondering though if the sign on entry into this zone is easy enough to understand before entering it? Because Walsall Parking’s owner was mighty confused by this sign, took a while to work out but then she has lost a few braincells recently trying to get her head around all the changes!

The changes in Freer Street have lead to unworkable situations for residents of that street. Added to this, the changes to the restrictions have been so hush, hush that residents have unwittingly fallen foul of the new enforcements and have been fined on a number of occasions, only being informed of the changes by way of a parking fine.

What are the changes on Freer Street?
Before April 1st, you could park in the bays on the street after 6:30pm and before 8am, which worked out well for residents of an adjacent apartment dwelling. Mostly these residents would lawfully park overnight in these bays and vacate at 8am to go to work. Perhaps on occasion, particularly a Saturday these residents may have been at fault, overstaying a little, before the enforcements came in. Sundays were again lawfaully ok, meaning people who live on the street could reasonably park outside their accommodation overnight. There was also a loading allowance of 20 minutes, handy for moving into and out of the property.

After April 1st and without consultation or communication to those who frequented the bays most, the reasonable ability to park there overnight was revoked. Residents found themselves only able to park in a bay for 30 minutes, with a no return within an hour. This causes numerous problems in the week as residents can and do get fined for parking outside their place of residence. The loading for 20 minutes was changed to no loading at all, though the pole is actually bigger than the sign, it’s so high up you wouldn’t know it’s there.

No Freer Resident Permit Schemes!
Being a resident myself I spoke to a Civil Enforcement Officer at the time and was told I’d “have to find somewhere more convenient to park”, I wasn’t offered any contact numbers to take my enquiries further and although being friendly the person didn’t seem to understand my request for information about what rights residents have (none apparently).

I called through to the right department in the council to ask about a residents parking permit and frequently met with the same response that no help was available because the street wasn’t covered by any schemes.

See what’s happened there is the enforcement has come in with a change to the regulations on a residential street and the people doing that planning didn’t stop to think about a residents scheme. Council-brainpower, FAIL!. It’s a fundamental cock up to have brought those changes in and to have not considered residents and also to have refused to help those residents when help was asked for. Not to mention constantly fining the people you refuse to help! That’s no way to get yourself a happy electorate or re-elected!

Options for Everyone
Looking at the street itself it’s very hard to comprehend why a scheme was not set up for reasonable and responsible parking, the irony of course is that the street is home to one of the biggest multi story car parks in the town! So there’s one opportunity missed. There’s a patch of private land, possibly owned by Mid Counties Co-operative Society, which is going to rack and ruin that could be used to ease the pressure on the parking bays. Not to mention if it is owned by Mid Counties Co-op, there is great PR there for both the for a few parking bays for residents that may allow for the charging of small town electric smart cars? A great tie up between the council the Co-op and the landlords of where the residents of Freer Street live, positive news for everyone.

The Reality
Residents, and remember there is no residents parking scheme, have to almost play cat and mouse with the Civil Enforcement Officers, moving cars so as not to over stay. Officially I was told to use Pay and Display, however not to miss a trick or two here the Pay and Display charges are going through the roof from May 1st and that’s not to say there won’t be further rises in future. The monthly permit charge was £60, but this could be going up in May and that roughly doubles the council tax residents effectively pay now, an extra £1,000 a year!

Residents must set an alarm on a Saturday morning to make sure they are out of a restricted bay and into Pay and Display. The universe has to just be aligned correctly to manage to not get a parking ticket and you’ve got to have your whits about you to make sure you’re not caught for £50, all this just because parking is now not allowed overnight on Freer Street, and there are people in the street that need nearby overnight parking, at not such a prohibitive cost.

Not to mention anyone who would have parked on Freer Street is now clogging up Goodall Street where restrictions are lighter, it does seem to have been one of many gigantic cock ups by Walsall Council in recent weeks.

The Reasons Given
The absolute shocker in all this is that enforcement came in to ease congestion in the town. I’m sure you’ll have seen the other gigantic cock up that is the new ring road? A lot of the congestion on Freer Street and around it comes from double yellow parkers who should be fined more than they are at the moment and having an NCP and Tameway Tower feeding into the road system, with cars parked in the bays not causing that congestion. All in all then on Freer Street at least if you live there, you may consider not living there anymore which is a real shame or your quality of life is now overshadowed by the impending threat that is not one, not two not three, not four but at least five Civil Enforcement Officers. All you want to do is snuggle up with a good film to forget the economically hard times we are in, only made worse for you as a resident by ridiculous money making schemes that are sexed up as a way of easing the horrendous congestion caused by the new ring road, but you can’t you’ve got to go out and move the car into Pay and Display, but only at the right time.

This blog aims to document the difficulties that have arisen for residents, traders and visitors alike, we welcome your comments and any contributions you can make. We also welcome any response from officials on the matters and issues raised. We aren’t just focused on parking in the town center, we encourage feedback form other areas of the town, even covering topics such as red routes and major supermarket developments leading to increased pressures.

From the outset we make it clear that we have no issues with any crackdown on dangerous, thoughtless or down right stupid parking, we take issue with a lack of communication, over zealous ticketing, the changing of restrictions to make situations impossible to live with. Above all we the residents traders and visitors of this great town aren’t anti warden, but more pro common sense.

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