SPURS RETHINK

CONTROVERSIAL plans for the future of parking in Brighton and Hove are to be changed, the Argus can reveal today.

Council chiefs are to look again at the residents' parking scheme after more than 10,000 people demanded their say.

Brighton and Hove Council wants to extend residents-only parking to cover central Hove, Hanover and Queen's Park, which could lead to residents paying £80 for a permit.

But assistant environment director Sheila Holden told Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce that parts of the scheme would now be revised.

She said: "We will be making significant amendments as a result of the consultation."

The move will be welcomed by many people who wrote to the council objecting to the scheme in the biggest response to a consultation exercise in the authority's

history.

Yesterday the Argus told how traders feared their livelihoods would be put at risk, while on Wednesday Hove MP Ivor Caplin urged a rethink.

He had told former colleagues there were "fatal flaws" in the scheme, adding: "At the moment the plans look as if someone went mad with coloured marker pens."

Reacting to news of the rethink, he said: "It is always important to respond to consultation, and I would congratulate the council for listening and being prepared to look again at some aspects of this scheme.

"I think there is broad agreement about the principle of residents' parking, but it is the practicalities of how it works that will affect so many people.

"It is crucial it is right for the long term and not the short term."

The council will now analyse the consultation reports before looking at all aspects, including hours of operation, prices of permits and the areas to be covered.

Ms Holden said the volume of comment also made it unlikely the scheme would be ready by the expected time, October next year.

She added: "It is far too early to say what changes we will be making. We need to consider very carefully the enormous response we have had.

"The bottom line is that demand for parking outstrips supply, and somehow we are going to have to balance the needs of various sections of the community.

"You are never going to get something like this right first time. People would like to see reduced levels of illegal parking and I think it has taken this consultation to realise this has a price tag attached to it."

Chamber of Commerce vice-president Chris Shanks said: "Much of the opposition to the scheme sees it as part of a continuing anti-car policy. This includes recently implemented traffic management schemes, ped-estrianisation and pavement widening.

"Companies in the tourist business feel that the combined effects are discouraging visitors to Brighton."

He said smaller shops lost trade if customers could not easily park.

A report submitted by National Car Parks divisional manager Mark Beecham and Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Buses, said more help should be given to businesses in central Hove and the Hanover/Queen's Park area.

And they opposed a council suggestion that the hours of enforcement in central Brighton should be extended from 6pm until 8pm as this could affect the night time economy.

Trader Hamir Thakariya, who runs Hove newsagents in Church Road, said: "I would definitely support changes to the scheme. I do not think any of the traders want what they are pro- posing."

Brian Ralfe, a spokesman for pressure group Campaign for a Better Brighton and Hove, last month quit the Labour Party over traffic policies. He said: "At last people power is showing.

"The council has steamrollered through with this transport policy, and I am glad to see they are waking up and listening to people."

A council spokeswoman said it would take several weeks to work out how many people opposed the scheme. She added: "We knew this would be a sensitive issue.

"It would not be fair to say the council got it wrong. We offered a set of proposals but they were never cast in stone. We offered them up for discussion."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.