Queen Street parking petition update
I would like to thank everyone that signed the parking petition in December. I also apologise for the delay in further news, but two County Council meetings were cancelled due to weather conditions and I was only able to speak at an area meeting last month.
Further to the petition being presented, meetings were swiftly put in place between Amble Town Council, Northumberland County Council, Amble Development Trust and myself.
The outcome of this meeting was the immediate lifting of the loading bays and their being turned into parking bays. This created about 20 more one hour bays on Queen Street. It was agreed not to take any of this area up with disabled bays as blue badge holders are able to park on the single yellow lines.
The yellow line areas can also be used for loading and unloading. It was confusing before the painted “LOADING BAY” signs were removed. This has now been done.
We must all remember that the parking bays are for ONE HOUR only and not for all day parking, which would impede the flow of parking.
Meetings have since been held and a scheme for parking problems in the whole of Amble is shortly being presented by the County Council to Amble Town Council.
When I spoke at the County Council Area Meeting, council officers apologised for the way the problem had been handled. They said that the problem should have been looked at earlier.
We would of course like to see many more parking spaces in the town and I will make sure the County Council is aware of this. I thank you again for your support with the petition.
Ann Burke
The 1 hour parking situation is ridiculous. Whilst all-day parking may well impede the flow of parking, only being able to park for one hour prevents people from shopping and visiting a café; it stops people being able to get their hair coloured at a local salon! We want to encourage people to spend in Amble… the parking situation makes this very difficult. There are too many yellow lines… those near Zecca (is that High Street?) could do with being removed, as too could the lines on one side of Church Street – both these roads are wide enough to allow parking on one or other side. Bridge Street is also wide enough to enable parking on one side. Why are there so many yellow lines? Surely we don’t need all these parking restrictions??