Parking In the Forest - 6th March 2011

On Friday I held my ‘Forestry’ public meeting. When I booked it at the height of the controversy I went for the largest hall I could find in the constituency given reports from elsewhere: at the Forest of Dean there were hundreds at a public meeting and most were unable to get in. My Colleague Mark Harper MP even required a police escort .  I never expected things to turn out like that in the New Forest. In the event however, it was never really put to the test because the ‘sting’ in the subject had already been drawn by the Government’s abrupt u-turn.

I decided to proceed with the meeting because I had received such a large correspondence, although -given the recent turn of events- I no longer expected a large attendance. A respectable number -40 or so- turned out, several of whom were experts on the subject including a number of Forestry Commission employees. We had a very civilised and useful discussion and absolutely everyone who wanted to have their say, did so –some several times.

We discussed my submission to the public consultation in which I set out the advantages of a locally managed arrangement where the Forest employees were no longer a part of a large national organisation with national targets and priorities. My mistake, however, was to introduce the subject of parking charges because that single –and peripheral- issue then took up a disproportionate part of the evening.

I mentioned parking because local media had concentrated on it when the Government published its proposals. I saw several versions of the headline ‘parking chaos in the Forest’. Their assumption was that any new management would inevitably charge for parking, which -in turn- would lead visitors to park all over the Forest verges.  I reject the premise that  a new devolved management would automatically charge for parking- although I would hope that it would. The Forestry Commission charges for about 30% of its car parks nationally and there is nothing to stop it changing its policy and charging for parking in the New Forest under the existing regime.

I stress that this is not a parliamentary matter that I have any influence over but I think we are daft not to charge for parking in the Forest. Millions of vehicles  visit and we allow them to get away with free parking at the same time as we are making vital Forest workers redundant –including two of our  Keepers.  Wouldn’t it be better to make a modest charge and have the revenue to invest in our staff. 

Every time I drive from my home in the Forest to my nearest market town I pass half a dozen illegally parked cars. They park there because it is more convenient, even though they are only 75 yards from a car park, and because they know that there is no prospect of a fine. By contrast, all the market towns in the Forest have controlled parking which does not result in any ‘parking chaos’ at all. Equally, I would argue that charging for Forest car parks would generate revenue without a parking free-for-all, so long as it was enforced and illegally parked cars ran a reasonable risk of incurring a fine.

What about the regulars – all those people who have to park to walk their dogs daily, or even twice daily -wouldn’t parking charges hit them disproportionately hard?
Well, I can’t see why we couldn’t have a parking clock scheme just like the district council does, even better, we could share the clock scheme and enforcement costs with the council.

All sorts of objections were raised: unsightly signs –so paint them matt green; unsightly machines –so put them in a tasteful wooden frame; the machines would be vandalised and the money stolen – not if we promoted payment by mobile phone as in Bournemouth; and etc. You can see why the discussion went on and on.