As England enters a new national restriction this Thursday, extra support is being put in place to help residents stay at home.
While the Council will continue its Civil Parking Enforcement to ensure against dangerous and wrongful parking so that fire engines, bin lorries and other vehicles are not impeded, it will allow all residential permit holders in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill to use its nearby car parks at no extra charge. Permits must however be displayed. This will be in place until 2 December or longer if the new national restrictions are extended.
In Newmarket, where permit parking is not yet in place, we will amend our current discounted annual permit scheme to allow residents to buy them on monthly basis. This means the monthly cost of parking in All Saints Car Park is £12.50, and flexible permit that covers all other long stay car parks in Newmarket will cost £20. These will be available online by the end of the week. This is a temporary measure and will only apply during the period of the national restrictions.
NHS workers displaying the NHS issued permit can continue to use the car parks for no charge.
Cllr John Griffiths, Leader of West Suffolk Council said: “We recognise that many more of our residents across West Suffolk will be at home again, whether on furlough or working from home, and sadly some may also lose their jobs. That will also put extra pressure on parking demand in our town centre streets which is why we are making our nearby car parks available to permit holders to use at no extra charge during these new national restrictions so they can stay home, stay safe and support us all as well as the NHS.”
Cllr Peter Stevens, Cabinet Member for Operations said: “In the longer term, in Bury St Edmunds we have already announced that their will have to be a review as put simply, there are more cars and more residents applying for permits than there are actual spaces. In the shorter term, we know our car parks will have extra capacity due to the closure of non-essential retail and other attractions. While this should by no means be seen as the solution to the longer term parking issues, it will help support residents to stay at home during these new national restrictions.”