Car parking changes in Wealden

Wealden District Council consulted on proposed changes to some of its off-street car park conditions.

The consultation responses have been considered and discussed, a summary of the feedback and the changes being made to car park conditions is set out below.

Amendment 1 The first proposed amendment is to the postal timescales for excess charge notices. The change is that the notice will now be posted within 5 days of a parking breach not the current 2 days. The current 2 day timescale is sometimes unachievable due to weekends, staff resource and Royal Mail postal delays.

Outcome: There were no consultation responses relating to this point, the postal timescales will be changed as per the above wording.

Amendment 2 There is also a change to reflect the introduction of mobile app payments. If a driver buys a ticket via a mobile app or QR code payment and is in breach of parking conditions for any reason, an excess charge notice does not need to be attached to the vehicle, details of the breach are recorded electronically only and a charge notice posted as usual.

Outcome: There were no consultation responses relating to this point, the conditions will be changed as per the above wording.

Amendment 3 All references within the car parking order to "24 hour" shall be replaced with "23 hour" to coincide with conditions set out in the car parks.

Outcome: There were no consultation responses relating to this point, the car park signage will be changed as per the above wording.

Amendment 4 At the request of Herstmonceux Parish Council, to help local businesses flourish, the Woolpack Car Park twenty two 23 hour bays will be reduced to short stay (3 hour) bays instead (Mon-Sat 8am to 6pm).

Outcome: Ten responses were received on this point, as a result of the consultation feedback the following will be in place in the Woolpack car park: of the 21 car parking spaces there will be, five 23 hour spaces and sixteen 3 hour spaces plus 2 disabled and 1 for motorcycles.

Amendment 5 At the request of Westham Parish Council, to help local businesses to flourish, the Peelings Lane Car Park twenty four 23 hour bays will be reduced to short stay (3 hour) bays instead (Mon-Sat 8am to 6pm).

Outcome: 18 responses were received on this point, as a result of the consultation feedback the following will be in place in the Peelings Lane car park:of the 25 car parking spaces there will be, thirteen 23 hour spaces and twelve 3 hour spaces plus 1 disabled bay and a new loading bay will be built to help users of the village hall.

Amendment 6 It is also proposed to introduce an annual permit charge for The Dene Car Park, Alfriston. There is rarely any free spaces in the forty eight 3 hour parking spaces for visitors to the village to it is expected that a charge will reduce the number of permits requested and therefore free up parking spaces for visitors to Alfriston. The cost is proposed as £75 for the first residential permit and £100 for additional permits or £100 for the first business permit and £125 for every permit after that.

Outcome: There were 8 responses to this point in the consultation and all were noted however, all neighbouring authorities operate permit schemes such as this and the fees set out for Wealden are lower than our neighbours and deemed appropriate. The proposed permit changes as above will come into place.

Amendment 7 The final proposal is to increase the excess charge amount in line with neighbouring authorities. The current rate is £30 if paid within 14 days. The recommendation is to increase excess charge notice amounts to £35 if paid within 14 days (and £70 if paid 15+ days) from 1 April 2024.

Outcome: There were no consultation responses relating to this point, ECN amounts will be changed as per the proposal above.

All the changes mentioned here will come into force on 1 April 2024.

We will monitor these changes and review them on a regular basis throughout the year to make sure they are working for the users of our car parks.