City of York Council’s proposal to tackle parking problems near the University of York have been slammed by ward councillors.
Executive member for transport, Coun Andy D’Agorne, approved a measure which will see “increased engagement” between the council and the university, as well as Archbishop Holgate School.
Parking from both education institutions is now said to have spilled over into Osbaldwick and Derwent ward after a residents’ parking scheme was introduced in Badger Hill, in the adjacent Hull Road ward, last year – preventing students from parking in the streets immediately outside the university.
Osbaldwick and Derwent councillor Mark Warters created a petition last year entitled ‘City of York Council SOLVE the York University related parking, don’t just MOVE it’.
He said: “Residents’ parking schemes simply move the problem. The resulting parking chaos in Osbaldwick and Murton isn’t because of stupidity on behalf of those involved, but outright malevolence – moving the problem from one community and dumping it onto another.”
He has called for the university to make its car parks free for staff and students.
His ward colleague, Coun Martin Rowley, said the council was not doing enough to tackle the problem.
He said: “I am absolutely aghast that that’s the recommendation of highly paid, highly skilled officers to simply recommend an increase in the engagement.”
No further controls
Cllr Rowley, a governor at Archbishop Holgate, said he believed the university was primarily to blame for the parking issue.
He said “the university should take responsibility”: “Simply encouraging students, as in the report, not to bring cars to the university is not enough – it’s a little bit like telling a dog not to bark when it’s upsetting the neighbours.”
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Cllr Rowley added: “I will do everything that I can to protect the integrity of my ward and the parking that the residents in my ward currently have.”
On-street parking in Badger Hill and Newland Park was restricted after campaigning from councillors and residents. The implementation of the scheme was paid for by the university.
Hull Road ward councillor Michael Pavlovic said parking problems in his area had “largely been resolved” but that there had been some knock-on effects in Osbaldwick.
The council’s director of transport, planning and environment, James Gilchrist, said the council did not have a “magic solution” to the issue.
Coun D’Agorne said: “Displacement parking is now affecting a different ward and it’s entirely within the gift of the ward councillors that represent those wards to put forward solutions that they see as being most appropriate.
“We don’t have any further controls that we can apply to the university in terms of how they make use of the car parks that they have on their site.”