I
have today slammed Dundee City Council for a complacent and wholly unacceptable response to the recent residents’ parking consultation in the West End, Coldside and Maryfield.A report coming to the council’s City Development Committee on 7th March recommends no further consultation and no actions whatsoever to improve parking in the areas concerns which I feel is really utterly pathetic.
The council has decided to wash its hands on helping residents with the parking situation and on the back of a wholly inadequate online consultation process. Written responses from the public amounting to the grand total of only 50, 40 of which came from the West End – just 5 responses in each of the other two wards. Only 30 people took part in the council’s online consultation events. No surprise really as they were badly advertised and the engagement can be best described as a bit flat.
There are thousands of residents in the affected areas but the council gets paltry numbers taking part – it is entirely the council’s fault. The council has totally failed to consult properly and you cannot in all reasonableness draw conclusions about lack of support for tackling the parking issues on the back of such an utterly inadequate and half-baked consultation.
I will be opposing the recommendation to ditch the process and will be proposing further consultation with the community to get a better community consensus on ways to improve parking and assist residents to get parked far more easily nearer their homes, adding that commuter parking must be tackled for the benefit of the residents who live in the affected parts of the West End.
It is unacceptable that parking charges in local car parks were still being levied on residents with no permit scheme for residents living in the area. I will make proposals to the City Development Committee to address this.
The council administration has shown no commitment or put in any energy to resolving the parking problems. The council cannot simply ditch the concerns of the community over the parking issue based on a half-baked so called ‘consultation’ with such pathetic levels of participation.
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