Concerns from S1

I think there may be some worries in S1 that their new found parking freedom is about to be invaded by hordes of several million 'Zone 8ers'. I received this email from Lapis Lazuli.

The problems in S1 before were caused by commuters, I think, not neighbouring residents. Moreover, our numbers show that the impact on S1, if pay and display is turned over to dual use as well, will be unnoticeable.

However, even though our cause won't hurt S1 in any way, we ought to try and address these concerns. Does anyone have any ideas about what we might do?

I must also say that, despite what Lapis implies, I've only delete spam comments from the blog and that I don't think any one in Zone 8 would threaten Lapis.

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Here's the email:

I understand that there is a campaign running to allow residents of N Marchmont to be allowed to park in zone S1. Do not believe there is any unanimity on this across marchmont. This is opposed by all those I have canvassed on this in the marchmont portion of zone S1.
We have suffered from free-loading zone 8ers for 20 years or more.

See also my comments and those of an anonymous but like minded person at http://marchmontparking.blogspot.com/ (if they haven’t been censored again).

Given the strong feelings aroused among those in N marchmont I am obliged to remain anonymous (as is my right in law under section 8 of the Human Rights Act).
I simply wished you to have support to protect S1 from
Z8 cars flooding in again.

lapis

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And I have this one from a resident of S1.

Hugh,

Congratulations on your web site, which is providing a constructive forum for airing views and facts about parking. I am writing to you to express a contrary view to those of your local residents in Marchmont, not to be argumentative, but simply to present an alternative view, so that you can see how others view the situation from outside Marchmont.

I would oppose any proposal to merge zones 8 and S1. I want zones to be as small as it is practical to set up and enforce. Let me explain why I believe those of us in the Grange and those in Marchmont will always have opposing views on this and why it will be very difficult for the politicians and Council officials to adjudicate on the matter.

Your own website (blog) is very helpful in providing statistics that enable us to support our prejudices with real facts. I see from the analysis of Zone 8 spaces vs permits that there are 1225 residents’ permits in zone 8, while there are only 755 residents’ spaces. There are only 322 pay and display spaces, so even if all of these were converted to shared use, there would still be insufficient spaces for residents to park all their cars in zone 8.

That is the nub of the problem. Residents of zone 8 have more cars than there is space in which to park them. They will therefore want the zone to be as large as possible to allow them to spill over into an area where demand for on-street parking is less than supply. Those living in that outer area (e.g. S1), however, if demand for on-street parking from residents is less than the available space, will take a diametrically opposing view, wanting any controlled parking zone to be as small as possible. In that way, those residents are more likely to have a space outside their property available for their own parking or empty to improve the appearance and cleanliness of the street. In the extreme, their ideal parking zone would be the exclusive parking rights in the length of road in front of their own property.

I am fortunate in living in a house in the Grange with a garage for my cars. When I moved here, I considered my needs for my family and my furniture and I looked for a property that met my needs. I have two children and two cars. My requirements were therefore for a house with enough bedrooms for my family and enough off-street parking for my cars. If I had purchased a house that was too small for my family or my furniture, I would not expect my neighbours to provide lodging for my children, nor to store my surplus furniture in their houses or gardens. I certainly would not expect to leave my surplus furniture outside their houses. I take a similar view with cars. If I could not afford a property in South Edinburgh with off-street parking, I would have to choose between the amenity of living in South Edinburgh (and forsaking one or both of my cars) or living somewhere less pleasant where I could park both my cars off-road. I do not assume that it is a right of a resident to be provided with on-street parking.

I know that the world looks very different to residents of Marchmont. I see from your blog that a major concern of Marchmont residents is about the refuse bins taking up parking space. Residents of Marchmont understandably see the roads as a parking resource in which the objective is to maximise the number of cars that can be parked there.

Residents of the Grange (at least some of them) take the opposite view. The ideal state of the roads is to have no parked cars in them at all. When I first moved to the Grange, there were rarely any cars parked outside my house at night or at weekends. My children played in the street. They learned to cycle in the road and I felt comfortable letting them cycle round the block as the roads are wide enough to accommodate wobbly cyclists and careful drivers. More recently, however, the roads became more solidly parked. The gutters were not getting swept when the road sweeping lorry came round. The buses could not stop by the kerb in Lauder Road because cars parked at the bus stops. And my children’s cycle to school was now past a continuous line of parked cars.

With the advent of Zone S1, things have improved markedly in that area. The roads look much better, feel safer and generally make the Grange a more pleasant place to be and to walk through. Contributors to your blog start from the presumption that empty spaces in streets are a waste and that they should be used for parking. I take the opposite view. Empty spaces are good and improve the amenity of the streets I live in and walk through. You may have noticed that the Grange Association (our local residents’ group) has lobbied the Council about the visual impact of the new signs, posts and road markings of Zone S1. We jealously guard the Grange’s Conservation Area status. You can imagine that if we are troubled by the visual impact of some posts and ticket machines, we are much more troubled by the impact of having parked cars and vans. Their impact is much greater and does markedly change the look and feel of the area.

I know that my views may irritate people in Marchmont, who may feel that the residents of the Grange are very fortunate in being able to afford the luxury of houses with off-street parking, and that the Grange should provide some relief for the overspill of cars from Marchmont. However, I believe that the residents of Marchmont (Zone 8 specifically) must be responsible for finding the solution to their own problem.

The problem is too many cars for the spaces available in Zone 8. How you choose to solve that problem is up to you. You could restrict the number of residents’ permits to the number of spaces available and then auction them, or raffle them, or have a lottery. You could club together to rent some garages or off-street parking outside the area. You can lobby the Council to increase the amount of parking available on-street (e.g. end-on parking). But the solution must be contained within Zone 8. It is not reasonable to expect those outside zone 8, who have made provision for the storage of their vehicles, to cross-subsidise Zone 8 by providing parking on the streets of the Grange or other parts of S1. We like our empty streets.

Your blog is revealing in showing how the world looks completely different to you in Marchmont than it does to me in the Grange. There are comments such as:

“We want the council to know that they need to stop fixing problems by creating problems in other places.”

implying that it is the Council that is creating the problem of there being too many cars in Zone 8.

Another comment:

“Mary has lived there for many, many years and has never had a permit in all that time. She used to park just round the corner in the free parking in S1 and never had any trouble finding a space not too far away.”

shows that there are still more cars of residents of Zone 8 not in your statistics. I therefore doubt the statement:

“The problems in S1 before were caused by commuters, I think, not neighbouring residents. Moreover, our numbers show that the impact on S1, if pay and display is turned over to dual use as well, will be unnoticeable.”

Your numbers show that there are at least 470 cars (plus those like Mary who are not in your numbers) that would park in S1, this being the excess number of Zone 8 permits issued comared with spaces available. I don’t think that is ‘unnoticeable’.

I do understand that this is not a problem that can be solved overnight, and glib statements from people like me that “you have too many cars” do not sound helpful. However, there is the longer term question of whether Zone 8 residents really do need that many cars. I notice that your excellent statistics on the number of spaces in each street were collected by driving round the streets. I found that very revealing. It would never occur to me to drive to Marchmont. It’s only round the corner and I can walk it in five minutes. Maybe that’s because I would have to get my car out of the garage and you can just hop into your car parked on the street. But it does make me wonder if you are a bit too wedded to your cars.

I trust that you will take my comments here as helpful in setting out an opposing view, so that you can see how the debate lies. I do understand that you have a real problem and that you need to solve it and I am just an outsider in your deliberations.

I would be very happy if you want to post some or all of this e-mail on your blog, but please do not publish my name, phone number or e-mail address. Just call me ‘a resident of the Grange’.

I am copying this e-mail to Marilyne MacLaren and Jim Grieve.


Yours sincerely,