More free short-stay parking could be introduced to entice people back into town centres after the coronavirus pandemic.
Mendip District Council is carrying out a review of its car parking provision, seeking to improve the experience for both residents and visitors to the area.
The council has published the results of an initial round of consultation, with a report to the council’s cabinet last month.
The report contains a number of suggestions for how parking could be improved in both the short- and longer-term. These include:
• Better signage: Motorists in Frome and Glastonbury felt that signs directing them to both short- and long-stay car parking were “generally unhelpful”, and that changes needed to be made to stop visitors being deterred;
• Free short-stay parking: One Frome resident said it was unfair to pay for parking “when you only want to do a few things in town”, arguing a short free period would encourage more visitors from rural areas;
• Advertise town’s unique characteristics;
• More car parking spaces: More electric vehicle charging points;
• Visitors to the Mendip area may have “travelled some distance”, and more charging points in Frome and Wells especially would encourage greener transport;
• Better pedestrian and cycle links;
• Fewer time restrictions.
Councillor Lucie Taylor-Hood, who chairs the parking strategy working group, said that car parking would play “a really critical role” in helping Mendip’s recovery from the pandemic.
She said, “One of the things that came out very strongly, across all of the settlements, was the need for short-stay free parking.
“Just to enable people to pop in for half an hour – go to the bank, pick up a coffee – so we encourage people to use the high street rather than just going to Tesco or one of the other big supermarket chains.”
A further update on the council’s parking strategy is expected to come forward later in the year, though this may be delayed by the pandemic.
