Thousands sign parking petition

A total of 3,562 people have signed the petition organised by Lewes Chamber of Commerce. It will be presented to Conservative-led East Sussex County Council, which runs the scheme.

Prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Jason Sugarman is supporting the petition.

Kevin Scott, Lewes Chamber of Commerce spokesman on parking, said, 'The success of the petition shows just how strongly local people are opposed to the current parking regime.

'We felt we couldn't get the Conservative run county council to listen, despite many Conservatives on the district council supporting our call for a rethink.

'Jason has been very helpful and he was instrumental in organising a meeting with Cllr Lock, who is the councillor responsible for the scheme.

'Norman Baker's views last weeks' Sussex Express were also very welcome.

'Perhaps the LibDems running the district council will now also put pressure on the county council to conduct the review we are calling for.'

In last week's Express Lib-Dem MP Norman Baker called for the county council to take over the enforcement of parking which is currently managed by NCP.

Last year a survey of 450 people revealed 77 per cent of people thought the town was worse off than before the parking scheme was introduced in 2005.

While 74 per cent of people thought the parking charges were too high and 73 per cent of people surveyed thought the parking wardens were too strict.

Following a Freedom of Information request by Lewes Chamber of commerce it was revealed that high running costs, combined with vandalism of meters, meant in the last financial year the scheme had to turnover at least 1.65 million just to break even.

Mr Scott said: 'The town needs a parking scheme which is much cheaper, less complex and less far reaching.

'It is ludicrous that a town the size of Lewes needs a scheme that costs over 1.6 million to operate.

'The number of zones and the times of operation should be significantly cut thereby enabling the number of parking attendants to also be reduced.

'The council needs to have confidence in their own ability to work with local people to design and manage a simple solution to the town's needs.

'We don't need expensive consultants and the likes of NCP.Tthe problem in the first place was never that big to need such an overblown scheme.'

The petition will be presented to the county council by Cllr Mike Murphy.