Grange / Prestonfield Community Council (GPCC) would like residents to be aware of important changes to local parking restrictions being proposed by the City of Edinburgh Council and to encourage you to have your say.
The Council is proposing to replace existing Priority Parking Areas (PPA) with Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) in Grange/Newington (B1) and Priestfield (B7), and to introduce a PPA in Prestonfield where there are currently no restrictions. The area around Kings Buildings (B6), which is also an existing PPA, is being monitored further to assess parking pressures during term-time.
Residents in Grange/Newington, Priestfield and Prestonfield received a leaflet from the Council in April explaining the proposals and were given until 30 May to make their views known to the Council. Given the importance of these proposals, GPCC felt that the consultation was hurried and did not allow enough time for local groups to contact residents. We therefore asked the Council to extend the deadline, but this was refused.
Although the survey deadline has passed, you can still submit your views by emailing edinburgh.consultation@projectcentre.co.uk.
For more information about the proposals, go to consultprojectcentre.co.uk/parkingph3
GPCC strongly encourages all residents to make their views known to the Council and to your 4
local councillors:
- Steve Burgess (Green) steve.burgess@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Alison Dickie (SNP) alison.dickie@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Ian Perry (Labour) ian.perry@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Cameron Rose (Cons) cameron.rose@edinburgh.gov.uk
You could also contact Councillor Lesley Macinnes (SNP), Chair of the Transport and Environment Committee at lesley.macinnes@edinburgh.gov.uk
What is being proposed?
There are already CPZ zones in our area, for example in parts of the Grange (S1). These are designed to discourage commuter parking in areas where residents have problems parking near their houses. However, in 2007 residents living south of Grange Loan rejected Council proposals for a CPZ, but wanted some parking restrictions. The GPCC worked closely with the Council to come up with an alternative solution. This led to the introduction of the first Priority Parking Area B1.
In a PPA, parts of the street are reserved for residents for 90 minutes each day (e.g. in B1 between 10–11:30am). To park here during the restricted period, residents are required to display a resident’s permit or provide visitors with a temporary permit.
Other parts of the street not reserved for residents can be used by residents and non-residents at any time free of charge. The limited restrictions have had the effect of reducing all day commuter parking. In contrast to a CPZ, fewer sign posts are needed to demarcate restricted bays, there are no ticket machines and patrolling is limited to a 90 minute window.
In a CPZ, the entire street will be restricted, currently Monday–Friday, 8:30am–5:30pm. There will be no free parking at these times. During the restricted period, residents will be required to obtain a permit from the Council to park up to two cars in residents-only or shared-use bays (very few ticket-only bays are proposed). Visitors will either have to pay for parking or be provided with visitor permits. Currently resident permits are about three times more in a CPZ than in a PPA and visitor permits cost about twice as much.
Driveways will be demarcated with single yellow lines that cannot be parked across during restricted hours (in contrast to the advisory white lines currently across driveways). There will also be more double yellow lines at corners and other places where they don't currently exist. There will be more street furniture in a CPZ. Ticket machines will be installed to provide tickets for temporary parking in a limited number of bays and there will be signs to designate each separate parking bay.