Press Coverage

I have just seen today’s Express and Star. Front page! I am most grateful for the coverage, as it helps in communicating our difficult situation to a wider audience.

I would, however, like to point out that the plans to take photos and make videos are not in any way intended to be a provocative gesture to non-residents parking in the area! I shall not be car-doorstepping commuters in a Roger Cook style “Mr Motorist, have you got anything to say?” style, although the idea of making a spoof is quite tempting.

Residents have already started forwarding photos of cars to the police, but only when they are causing obstruction, hindering passage on pavements or the road. These photos merely serve to illustrate the daily difficulties residents face because of inconsiderate motorists. Residents who are elderly, disabled, in wheel chairs, pushing pushchairs or loaded down with shopping should not have to walk out into the street to get around parked cars – it is as simple as that.

Equally intended as only an illustration and not a provocation  is my planned video of the expected rush hour traffic chaos. A picture tells a thousand words and a video many more and I think a video of Castletown gridlocked would be quite informative. All I want to do is to show anyone who is interested how daft the situation here has become.

I have just had a really good chat with Jeremy Herbert and assured him how non-confrontational our intentions are. If I  really were a pitchfork-waiving redneck I would not be having a meeting with Cllr Mark Heenan and representatives of the Highways Department next week, would I?

Here is the whole press release, so you can get a wider picture:

Castletown Residents Parking Concerns

The recently reformed Castletown Residents’ Association met last Thursday evening to discuss parking issues with members of the Town Centre police team.

Tom Harris, chairman of the Association told us, “Finding a parking space in Castletown has been an issue for a long time. Residents originally set up the group around 25 years ago with the intention of campaigning for a parking scheme. Various schemes have been discussed in the past but residents and local authorities have never been able to negotiate their way to an agreement.”

At the end of 2008 Staffordshire County Council sent out questionnaires to residents in Castletown, asking their opinions about a possible parking scheme.

“In February 2009 I learned that the County Council had received about half of the questionnaires back, but unless many more were returned the consultation would be shelved. A few other residents and I went knocking on doors and we got lots more replies sent back. Shortly after that the plans for a residents’ parking scheme for Castletown was announced.”

Karl Motherwell, the Association’s secretary said, “Castletown Residents’ Association is working together with the County Council to help make the parking scheme the success it deserves to be. The start date of the parking scheme is yet to be announced, although we understand some time in spring or summer 2010 is on the cards.”

Although the planned parking scheme means there is light at the end of the tunnel, residents still have to put up with a difficult situation in the meantime.

Karl told us, “Since the Borough Council became responsible for issuing parking tickets we have suffered terribly. There are tales of people being fined when their back wheel was four inches on to the double-yellow lines, or when unloading heavy tools from their cars.

As well as the shoppers, students and commuters who take advantage of the free parking in Castletown, the closure of the car park at Stafford railway station is set to raise tensions as yet more train users inevitably seek an alternative to the park-and-ride scheme or paying for parking elsewhere.”

In order to help ease the situation members of the Association are being issued with identification cards for their vehicles after residents unanimously agreed to the idea.

Tom Harris said, “It seems the best way forward right now is to help residents to recognise each others’ cars. People don’t mind so much when they know it is the other residents’ vehicles filling up their street.”

The residents are now hoping a new website, which can be found at http://www.castletownstafford.wordpress.com, detailing their concerns about the parking situation, will help communicate their plight.

Mr Harris told us, “We going to start publishing photos of inconsiderate parking on the website, as well as forwarding them to the police. Later this month, when the railway station car park closes we are going to film the inevitable traffic chaos during rush hours and upload the video to YouTube so everyone can see what we have to put up with.”

PC Darren Mattocks, of Stafford Town Centre police told us, “We are very happy to be working together with the residents over what we know to be a difficult situation.”