Wednesday 11 November 2015
Media Enquiry from Island FM:
We've heard from the GMTA which says the small car parking spaces in town are too small....and that they should be increased to 3.8m so that actual designated small car models will fit in them.
Does Environment have anything to say on this?
Environment Department Response:
The Small Car Parking scheme has evolved over the years since it was first introduced on the Careening Hard Arm of the Crown Pier in 2005. At that time the maximum length of cars permitted to park in 'Small Car' spaces was just 3.3m but this soon increased to 3.5m and subsequently to 3.6m under the current scheme.
The scheme is unique to Guernsey and has proved very popular over the years and has now expanded to offer long-term spaces for these popular small cars on the North Beach and Albert Piers in addition to the Crown Pier and, more recently, with four short-term parking spaces at the bottom of Cornet Street and nine 5-hour spaces which are being installed shortly in Candie Road.
The proposals in Candie Road are specifically designed to address road safety concerns in the area where currently larger (and by implication wider) vehicles park forcing passing vehicles to mount the pavement directly outside a number of residential properties whose front doors open directly on to the pavement.
In addition to small cars occupying less road space and generally being more fuel efficient than larger cars, the creation of parallel small car parking spaces also allows for additional parking spaces to be created. In the case of Candie Road, this will see one additional space being created. When the small car spaces were first introduced on the Crown Pier in 2005 it created an additional 6 or 7 parking spaces.
There are still many thousands of small cars that fit into the current sized spaces but the scheme is worthy of review to ensure that there are still enough new models to choose from if people are wanting to purchase new vehicles.
It is also worth highlighting that small car parking spaces currently account for less than 3% of all 'approved' and 'disc' parking spaces in St. Peter Port.
Contact Information:
Colin Le Page, Principal Traffic Officer (Strategy and Projects)
Environment Department
Tel: 243400
