Have your say on 10-year parking strategy for the Borough

October 13, 2021

Residents and businesses are being urged to take part in a public consultation on the Borough’s first parking strategy, which will shape the council’s approach to parking management in Southend-on-Sea for the next 10 years.

The draft Parking Strategy was approved by the council’s cabinet in September and is the first of its kind for Southend-on-Sea residents and businesses. It will look to provide an over-arching plan for how existing and future parking schemes across the town are implemented. This will include how schemes follow four new principles of parking; safety, fairness, consistency and transparency

In 2019, the council launched a comprehensive strategic parking review, with the aim of improving the existing parking facilities across the Borough to benefit residents, businesses and visitors to the town. As part of this review, the council consulted with internal stakeholders on the draft parking strategy, with comments feeding into the draft document.

Following approval by cabinet, residents and businesses are now being urged to have their say and help shape the report before the strategy is finalised for approval in 2022.

Cllr Ron Woodley, cabinet member for transport, asset management and inward investment, said: “As an administration, one of our priorities has been to overhaul a variety of previous parking and highways policies for the Borough to ensure there is a consistent approach to make driving and parking in our town as easy and fairly priced as possible.

“This draft parking strategy will provide a clear direction for the policy over the next 10 years, so that all current and future parking projects are connected through our values of making parking fair, safe, consistent and transparent and help us ensure that parking in local streets is also truly accessible for local residents. For this to be a success, we need to ensure all stakeholders have their say, most importantly our residents and businesses.

“We know that parking is a hot topic in Southend, and lots of people have varying views on what parking should look like in the Borough, so it is really important we gauge as many views as possible during this consultation period. We want to listen, so please have your say.”

The consultation is now live and will close at 5pm Thursday 2 December 2021.