Preston city centre parking permit plan is approved

Currently, more than a dozen residential streets in the south of the city make up a single parking zone known as Avenham 1 (AV1).

But it has been claimed that residents living in the western part of the zone, closest to the railway station and Fishergate shopping centre, are having difficulty parking near their own homes – because of the actions of fellow permit-holders.

Papers presented to a meeting of Lancashire County Council’s cabinet suggest that motorists from other parts of the AV1 area are clustering in the western side of the zone at certain times of the day to benefit from “convenient commuter parking or access to the shops”.

Four streets in the existing AV1 zone – East Cliff, East Cliff Road, Garden Street and Mount Street – will now be splintered off to form a new area known as Avenham 3 (AV3), meaning that only residents living on those roads will be able to park there.

A public consultation earlier this year drew concerns from some AV1 residents about the impact of the change. One objector claimed that the only reason that permit-holders from further afield were parking in the proposed AV3 was because it was often the only part of the zone with spaces available.

But highways officers promised that other changes to parking arrangements in the new, smaller AV1 area – with new residents’ bays to be created on Regent Street, Bairstow Street and Chaddock Street – would actually result in a net gain of 11 spaces.

A suggestion from two respondents that the boundary between the revised AV1 and the new AV3 zones should be rethought was rejected by County Hall.

“Wherever the line is drawn, there will be permit holders [who] find that their choice of parking bays will change,” a report to cabinet notes.

Various other general waiting and loading restrictions will be introduced within the city centre’s zoned streets as part of the forthcoming changes.