This weekend, today Friday, November 30 and tomorrow Saturday, December 1, there is an exhibition at Rye Town Hall in Market Street between 9am and 12 noon and 2pm and 8pm about future parking arrangements in Rye.
And you need to pay attention because THEY are coming! WHO? you may well ask. It's the dreaded traffic wardens, as employed by East Sussex County Council (ESCC).
And, after consulting Rother District Council (RDC) , ESCC are proposing pretty much what looks like the status quo - today's restrictions with the addition of wardens and meters!!
But I should declare an interest here. I do not drive. I do not have a car, but I do have a garage - which a neighbour uses.
However I do have personal knowledge of parking in Rye as my "ex" lived first in Wish Ward (no garage, or driveway) and then in a flat in Watchbell Street (again no garage, or driveway).
As far as Wish Ward was concerned she parked where she could around town, but frequently ended up in Mason Road (on the Tilling side of the Gibbet Marsh car park).
In Watchbell Street she had a permit, but no guaranteed space - and much depended on how busy the Hope Anchor Hotel was that night. And often she could not park near her home.
I however have both a garage (used by a neighbour's "other car") and a space in front of my house (and visitor spaces on the other side of the road) up in Valley Park.
But, over the years, an increasing variety of vehicles (including commercial ones) have appeared outside my house which seem to have nothing to do with me or my immediate neighbours.
I also have an interest, as an elderly pedestrian with a shopping trolley, as pavements can be blocked by lorries, vans and cars apparently delivering to nearby premises.
And pavements can also become dangerous when cars parked on corners force larger vehicles on to the pavement in order to get through. The corners of East Street and Market Street, and Market Road and the High Street, are particular examples of this.
However, given the cost of setting up this scheme I think it unlikely ESCC will want to change it after it has been introduced, so you need to speak up NOW
Our previous story attracted lots of comments, and one in particular (from Tim Roche) deserves thinking about. In London where I lived for many years residents could buy parking permits which enabled them to park anywhere in the borough not covered by restrictions or meters. Perhaps ESCC need to be encouraged to do that, rather than (in cahoots with RDC) just sticking to the status quo.
If visitors can park where they like (in the absence of restrictions or meters) they will do so in order to avoid paying in the car parks, but it means residents then have difficulty in finding anywhere they can park.
Our previous story of Nov 15 attracted a lot of comments, including the lengthy one from Tim Roche.
Please read them and make sure ESCC hears your views by the consultation deadline of January 14.
And, yes, there will be a cost if residents with cars (and no garage or driveway) want have to have a permit, but the alternative is the idiot situation where Gibbet Marsh car park is virtually empty, but there seems nowhere to park in residential streets because of visitors' cars.
