Stopping parking on piers will kill Town stone dead
I READ with some alarm the proposal to stop car parking on our harbour piers, as part of the ‘enhancement’ of the harbour area. I am very concerned that some of the proposals seem to be heavily weighted on making everything neat and pretty, while conveniently forgetting that many of the population have needs.
I refer specifically to the many who are elderly and/or have mobility problems but do not quite qualify for disabled parking, women who are pregnant, people who are ill, young mothers with small children, to name but a few. These people cannot be expected to cycle into Town, as we are all being urged to do. None of these people want – or in some cases are able – to walk from Salerie Corner or the La Vallette area just to pop into Boots for some essentials or whatever.
If you do away with parking on the Town piers and hope that people will find somewhere else to park, it will have one catastrophic result: many many people, like myself, will stop coming to Town at all. It will kill the Town stone dead. Unless people have a proper alternative such as underground parking (which should have been done years ago) people will simply stay away. Having a shuttle-bus system with out-of-Town parking won’t appeal either.
We are constantly being encouraged to buy local and not to buy goods online. Yet if people cannot easily access Town, that’s exactly what will happen.
It doesn’t matter how neat and tidy and pretty the Town would be (it’s beautiful as it is, as far as I’m concerned) or how many awards its designers might win, it will be too late.
I urge the Seafront Enhancement Group to consider the knock-on effect of the proposed changes. Please do not ruin our Town.
MARGUERITE FEWKES,
St Saviour’s,
GY7 9NN.
