Car parking

The Burghley Centre car park

Parking is a comparatively recent problem in Lincolnshire. It was first noticed in 1930 when the Lincolnshire Automobile Club observed that in certain towns, particularly on market days, places to leave cars were becoming more and more restricted.

The motor car was still a new phenomenon because in the same year, speed limits  governing their use were abolished although new penalties were introduced for dangerous or careless driving. Since then, the motorist has faced new rules and regulations constantly, either to restrict his activities or increase his overheads because government at all levels has never been slow to exploit any chance to raise additional income.

Despite the steady increase in road traffic, car parking is not yet a major problem in Bourne where there are three main car parks and several other smaller sites although there may be short delays in finding a space at busy periods such as Thursday market day and the Saturday shopping rush. The town is also well provided with car parks and a total of 500 free spaces, either in scheduled parks or at the kerbside.

Pay parking however continues to look an attractive proposition for South Kesteven District Council which oversees these matters although several attempts to impose charges have already been fought off. The system was first suggested in 1998 and again in 2001 and surfaced two years later when the argument continued until the spring of 2004 when it became apparent that the authority was intent on bringing Bourne into line with other towns under its control but a 4,000 signature petition and a concerted effort by our town councillors won the day and in May that year the idea was shelved.

In August 2008, there was a fresh attempt to introduce parking charges when a report on the issue again came up for discussion by South Kesteven District Council with the possibility that they could be in force by April the following year. The report said that charging motorists to use the car parks in Burghley Street, South Street and the market place behind the Corn Exchange, would encourage a higher turnover of spaces and more visitors as a result. The cost of implementing charges in Bourne would be £120,000, the money being recouped from fees within 16 months, and if they were not levied, then all costs associated with providing the service would fall on the general tax payers in the South Kesteven area.

The reaction from civic and business leaders was as expected with the mayor, Councillor Shirley Cliffe, roundly condemning such a move and Jane Good, chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce, spelling out the consequences. “Paying to park would just kill the town”, she told the newspaper. “It is hard enough to survive at the moment and we already have a lot of empty shops. If people have to pay to park, they will shop elsewhere.”

This was due to be discussed by South Kesteven District Council on Thursday 4th September but the item was withdrawn from the agenda at a meeting of the highways and planning committee the previous Tuesday (September 2nd). Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), who is also leader of the council, said that the decision was the result of hard work by all of the town’s local councillors to ensure that there was no debate and there the matter rests for the time being.

But although the topic may be dead at the moment, it will certainly not lie down because the council chairman, Mike Exton, said that car parking charges would be considered as part of the town redevelopment scheme which means at some distant time in the future. The £25 million scheme was first mooted seven years ago (in September 2001) and not a brick has yet been laid and apart from cost appraisals and the purchase of the Burghley Street grain warehouse, there has been little movement to take the scheme forward with further delay likely as a result of the current downturn in the economy. This can therefore be seen as a hollow victory because the prospect of additional income will eventually become too tempting for SKDC and it can only be a matter of time, albeit some time yet, before free parking does eventually come to an end in Bourne.

There is also evidence that charging for parking is inevitable because there are reports that when the Burghley Street car park behind the Post Office was redesigned five years ago, cables were laid in preparation for the installation of pay meters. If this comes to fruition, then the charges will be in line with the council’s tariff in other towns under its control such as Stamford and Grantham (as at September 2008) where it costs 80p to park for one hour, £1.30 for two hours, £1.80 up to three hours, £6 up to four hours and £8 for the day or £2.60 in long stay car parks, charges that would be prohibitive for shop and office workers in Bourne whose employment is within the town centre area.

Sainsbury's supermarket which opened in 1999 provided 200 spaces and many were used by car owners who never shopped there but the company ended this practice in the summer of 2006 with the introduction of daily patrols and heavy fines for anyone staying longer than two hours, thus sending the offenders elsewhere. The company also announced in July 2008 that its own workers would be banned from using the car park at the supermarket's busiest times on Fridays and Saturdays to provide more spaces for customers and staff were advised that in future they ought to park elsewhere around the town at those times.

Store manager Paul Bryan said it was not an easy decision but a right one for their customers who sometimes found it difficult to park at peak shopping times. "We have had extensive consultation with our staff and those who have not found alternative places to park are prepared to walk to work instead."

The announcement was an unpopular one and provoked criticism from the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce. "They should park in their own car park because fair is fair", said James North, owner of North Shoes in North Street and the chamber's vice-chairman. "Employees should be provided with allocated spaces. We are just a small town which people use to pop into to get their purchases. We want the whole shopping experience to be easy for them and we do not want parking spaces in the town centre area being taken up by staff from Sainsbury's. They certainly would not like it if we started using their car park."

In the meantime, a scheme to increase the number of spaces in the town by turning the Burghley Centre car park behind Budgens into a multi-storey was scrapped in August 2006 when the preferred developers of the town centre refurbishment project were dropped by SKDC. If the scheme had gone ahead, as recommended by some senior councillors in Bourne, then Meadowgate would have been turned into a major traffic bottleneck but in the event, sanity ruled even though it was by mischance.

The worsening problem of car parking surfaced in the autumn of 2008 with the announcement that the annual October Fair would again be visiting Bourne from Friday 31st October to Sunday 2nd November and, as in past years, commandeering almost 100 spaces in the Burghley Street car park, much to the chagrin of shoppers and workers. The problem was not a new one, having been raised more than 25 years before by the late Marjorie Clark (1919-2007), the town's longest serving councillor for more than 40 years and twice Mayor of Bourne, who brought up the issue at a meeting of Bourne Town Council on Tuesday 23rd September 1980 by pointing out that the annual amusement fair was taking up badly needed parking spaces and added:

I am disturbed that the fair can be held on one of the car parks we have left in Bourne. Surely there are other parts of the town where it could be held without causing such inconvenience. In the past, fairs have been held in Mill Drove and Spalding Road but instead we have them in the town centre on a Friday and Saturday every year when these car parking spaces would normally be heavily used.

Since then, traffic numbers have doubled and the prospect of losing vital spaces brought widespread criticism, particularly from the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce whose chairman, Jane Good, told The Local newspaper (September 26th): “The fair would be better off in a field, somewhere in an open space near the town. We will see more parking on the streets which will cause more chaos than ever. Car parking is getting beyond a joke.”

There were also suggestions that the fair might be sited at the Abbey Lawn, the Wellhead Gardens or the recreation ground and even the absurd notion of putting it on the streets, closing either North Street or West Street in the process, and even South District Council was at a loss to provide a suitable response to the complaints by advising that public transport could be used for the duration of the fair, a proposal that demonstrated total ignorance of the bus services in the town. None of these suggestions would be likely to solve the current problem and that can only be done by finding an out of town location which should be a priority for those local authorities concerned with the current dilemma.

In the summer of 2013, the layout of the car park in Burghley Street was re-designed. The ornamental iron railings, public seat and information board were all removed to increase the number of spaces from 92 to 95. At the same time, the number of spaces for public use was reduced to 81 because 14 of them were allocated to tenants occupying the flats in the nearby Wherry's Lane development and all were fitted with lockable integral parking posts to secure them for the exclusive use of their owners.

This created some controversy in the town because the flats were built by South Kesteven District Council and the offer of car parking spaces was made as an inducement to buy even though they were advertised for sale to private buyers and as investment properties to let. Many motorists also ignored the restrictions and began parking across the white lines, thus making the allotted spaces inaccessible to the owners.

Questions have also been asked why this huge expanse of open space has been left vacant on the north side of the development when the town centre is facing such serious parking problems. There is room here for 100 or more cars to park but it is understood that the land is being landscaped with grass and trees in case needed for further expansion at some time in the future although priority now would seem to be the provision of  more spaces that would boost local trade and help calm motorists who are becoming increasingly  frustrated when driving into Bourne.

REVISED JULY 2014

See also   Car parking crisis in 2015