Hotels to lose Weymouth Park District permits

Extra parking spaces should be available for residents of Weymouth’s Park District after a decision to reduce holiday accommodation permits.

It will mean holiday businesses in two zones (A & C) losing permit spaces for customers when they expire – with guests offered a substitute parking permit for the Swannery or Lodmoor car parks.

The lack of parking in the area has long been a problem with the area having not enough spaces for people who live there.

Residents petitioned the council in January 2019 demanding changes with a consultation held later in the year attracting 273 responses, the majority from residents. One in five who responded did not have a permit at the time.

More than three quarters of those who filled in the form said that hotels and guest houses should be excluded from the parking permit scheme but given access to nearby car parks instead at a similar cost to the existing resident permit. Around 80 per cent of hotels and guesthouses were against the idea.

An audit of parking spaces in the area showed 525 resident permits for zones A and C, 147 hotel/guest house permits and 26 business permits – a total of 698, although the zones only have 526 spaces available.

Under the new rules guests visiting holiday establishments will still be able to park outside the property to drop off their luggage and check-in before receiving a permit and moving their vehicle into either the Swannery or Lodmoor car parks.

The new rules will still not give all residents a parking permit – they will be limited to two permits per household unless a special case can be made. Hotel and guesthouse owners will be classed as residents for permits. Other changes include making one-hour parking bays only available to residents between 6pm and 9am.

Properties with several households will be considered individually for permits.

A report to the area planning meeting on Thursday told councillors: “It is considered that the benefits of the scheme outweigh the potential impacts on local businesses.”

The meeting was told that many residents believed parking restrictions were not being adequately dealt with and there is widespread abuse of the one hour bays and double yellow lines, especially in the summer months.

The area, which is characterised by narrow streets, generally only has parking spaces on one side to ensure access for larger vehicles, including emergency services.

Ward councillor Jon Orrell backed the recommendations saying there was an irony in the name ‘The Park District’ being a place where people could not park.

He said he believed the changes would improve the chances of residents being able to find a space, but would not significantly disadvantage the holiday trade.

Cllr Orrell gave examples of holiday makers arriving, getting a prime parking spot, and then not moving their vehicle for the whole week while pensioners who needed to use their cars for shopping were often unable to park anywhere near their home when they returned; or a nurse coming back from a night shift, often being unable to park anywhere near where they lived.

“I could recount hundreds of examples, I have a list of residents who have contacted me. If I recited all their cases we would be here for hours,” he said.

Some guest house and b&b owners claim the policy is already outdated due to the pandemic and will put holiday businesses in the Park district at a disadvantage – with guests being put off by what they say is a 10-15 minute walk from the Swannery car park. One warned that the likely increase in visitors this year might result in no parking spaces being available for guests with the expected influx of visitors, unless spaces were ear-marked for the holiday businesses.

“Taking away our parking permit will make staying with us impracticable and un-welcoming to most holiday-makers,” said one guest house owner.

Wyke Regis councillor Kate Wheller said the changes would not be welcomed by all, but she believed they were the best possible solution to what she described as a “tricky problem.”