It is interesting that Whitley Bay councillors are now inviting comments from traders as to what they think is best for their business vis à vis car parking in the town centre.

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The council has already undertaken that exercise some time ago, this resulted in the Town Centre parking strategy which was agreed by the Cabinet in August, 2007.

Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade and one ward councillor are listed as having contributed to the consultation exercise.

Since then, there was an attempt to change the strategy which officers asked for time to consider and, on July 30, I met with the three Whitley Bay ward councilors to try to progress the discussion.

We explored some amendments which could be made without destroying the
basic integrity of the scheme and officers were asked to undertake some further work to try to create some extra parking spaces which would be of benefit to the business sector.

This meeting was, I felt, constructive and with a little compromise on all sides I believed that we were approaching an acceptable solution.

Naturally it is the councillors' right to consult with people in their ward but, as I've stated, that has been done, extensively, and what I really want to do is to implement the scheme, even if it has to be in a modified version which I consider not to be the best option.

I'm prepared to do this because the residents of the area will be the ultimate beneficiaries because part of the deal is to significantly improve the residential parking as well as introduce some control over the parking of visitors and shoppers.

What we are trying to offer is a range of parking tarrifs to suit different shoppers in different town centre locations – from 'free' for a limited period for the short term visitor popping into the bank for example, one pence a minute (minimum 5p) for those visitors who wish to spend a little more time and up to £1 for those who are in the town for a couple of hours or more.

I think this is reasonable although I note Alan Moses' definition of someone who has an opinion different to his, i.e "divorced from reality".

I trust then that his members from the Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade are looking forward to hearing the rantings of one who is at best estranged (at worst, deranged) since I have accepted his kind invitation to be a guest speaker at their next meeting in September.

Ah well, such is life!

FRANK LOTT
Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration and Transport
North Tyneside Council

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