Parking in Hugh Town Survey Results To this point over 550 people completed the survey I posted to this site on Saturday morning, 68% of whom were not from Scilly. Of those who expressed a preference the majority wanted a workable permanent solution to the parking issue. Defences Loading & Unloading is going to be the most popular defence but the runner up was the stopping to pop to the shops etc. for a minute/45mins. Impressively 35 respondents considered themselves frightfully important and interestingly many will be outraged that leniency is not applied on a Sunday and in the winter months. Many wanted me to catch real criminals which I attempted to do at the Tregarthens Hotel Murder Mystery evening but Kevin Leaman got off on a technicality at the last moment and is living amongst us again. Twenty two people will mount the curb with three wheels and I will get it in the neck when I issue a ticket to my wife. Police Strategy Most favoured the Zero Tolerance approach but experience tells me that Zero Tolerance really does only apply to everyone else. A favourable 66% (315) will be booking a holiday to Idyllic Scilly but I would ask that they do not bring their caravans. Most people enjoyed this survey a lot but I now know I have to look out for 29 (7%) people who will always hold a grudge and disagree with anything the police do. Thank you for participating in this bit of fun. I will not be basing our policing strategy on this alone I assure you. What is to be done with parking? We hold no solutions here at St Marys Police. These have to come from all of us who use vehicles on St Marys. Feel free to pass on your thoughts via this site or speak to any of us when you see us about. The best solution however is to speak to one of our elected councillors who will be in the best position to drive any initiatives through the council. Please however understand that the police are not the architects of any plans. We are here to enforce if that is part of the solution and if we are considered to be the most appropriate resource to enforce parking. Ill start you all off with the thoughts that: If yellow lines are simply painted up without any changes to other aspects of parking restrictions it will be an offence to park in Hugh Street between 9am and 6pm 365 days of the year. That may suit some but does it suit everyone? Will a clear road increase average speeds through town? Do yellow lines float your boats? Meanwhile here is a lovely sunset to take the heat out of any debate. Keep it polite. All ideas are valid its just that some may need polishing before implementing. Colin
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000