Blue badge holders will get twice as long for their car parking
as other motorists from April when disabled people will be asked to
help play their part in bridging Suffolk Coastal’s £2.7 million
budget gap.
This week’s (Tuesday) Cabinet meeting agreed to press ahead with
a series of changes to car parking charges, which included the
first increases in town centre prices for six years.
“The scale of the financial challenges facing this Council to
balance its budget by 2015/2016 has left us with little choice
other than to review each and every one of our services. In common
with some other councils we have decided to revise the rules for
blue badge holders and withdraw the free two hours parking that we
did offer,” said Cllr Andrew Nunn, Cabinet Member for the Green
Environment.
“There does seem to be evidence that access and availability are
more of an issue for disabled drivers than the possible cost of
parking, and it is certainly wrong to assume that all blue badge
holders cannot afford to buy what will still be some of the best
value for money parking tickets in our region.
“We do recognise that blue badge holders do still deserve to be
treated differently than other motorists, which is why we will give
them double time for their ticket, as well as more and better sited
bays. This could mean them paying as little as 50 pence for two
hours parking,” added Cllr Nunn.
The Council is committed to making changes to its car parks to
make them easier to use for disabled motorists, both with better
parking bays and easier to use pay machines.
All motorists, including blue badge holders, are also being
reminded that a variety of season tickets are offered and also 22
car parks in Felixstowe and Woodbridge are covered by the RingGo
easy to use mobile phone service.
Using RingGo allows people to pay for their parking with a
credit or debit card, rather than using cash at a machine. Anyone
registered with RingGo can simply dial the local number shown on
nearby signs and pay over the phone.
People can pre-register on the RingGo website or at the time
they want to use the service. The number to call for Suffolk
Coastal car parks is 01394 642645.
“Using our car parks to help generate additional income is one
of the few ways that we can get a contribution from the many people
visiting our district and benefiting from services such as our free
public toilets, our cleansing services, or our parks, gardens and
tourist facilities.
“We shall continue to have some of the best value car parks, but we
also have a responsibility to all our residents to ensure that we
are providing our services efficiently and effectively, and that
they are funded in as fair a way as possible,” added Cllr Nunn.
Full details of the Council’s car parking services, including
season tickets, the RingGo service, the location of all its car
parks, and also the free 30 minutes spaces it offers, can be found
on
www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/yourdistrict/carparks/