Clifton’s Labour ward councillors are to call on the council’s transport chief to survey Clifton residents on the idea of a new, area-wide residents parking scheme. The request follows news that the Council could consider a full city-wide review of the scheme.

Councillor Danny Myers has written to the Executive Member for Transport, Cllr. Andy D’Agorne, to ask that, in particular, the terraced areas around the Bootham Park football ground are asked if they would like to be part of a new ResPark area.

Councillor Margaret Wells explained why residents should be surveyed, saying: “Parking in Clifton has become a real concern for many residents who cannot park anywhere near their own home, which cannot be right. If the Council is looking to review ResPark then in our view it needs a complete overhaul.

“ResPark schemes should be made cheaper for residents, and the system needs to have sufficient capacity to be able to deal with the huge backlog of streets on the waiting list. Some residents will be waiting several years to even have their streets considered, in which time parking problems will only get far worse”.

Usually, schemes have to be considered after a petition is gathered and the schemes are considered on a street by street basis. However, this approach has been shown to displace parking, failing to address the root problem and simply pushing parking on to other nearby residential streets.

Cllr Myers will ask for the whole area to be surveyed in a non-binding way by the City Council, to see if residents would like to be considered together in one new, much larger, ResPark zone. This call is in line with an approach being floated by the new Executive Member for Transport, due to be set out in a report to the council’s Economy and Place Scrutiny Committee.

Addressing commuter parking in residential areas could also play its own small part in helping tackle the climate emergency as commuters consider more sustainable transport options than parking within walking distance of the city centre.

Cllr. Myers said: “We’re concerned about the problems created by commuter parking for local residents but also about the continued increase in costs of ResPark in York for those that need parking restrictions in their areas. Labour froze the costs of ResPark from 2011-2015, and we opposed the increases that the Lib Dems voted for three times in the last four years.

“The Greens are now propping up the Lib Dems, and if they want to take meaningful action, they need to give the Officers the resources they need to implement schemes that residents want.

“Given Coun. D’Agorne’s previous and latest comments on ResPark costs, we expect to see the Greens committing to, at a minimum, freezing ResPark costs and blocking the Lib Dems from any more price hikes. But ideally any review would look at the size of ResPark schemes and see them made cheaper for residents in line with the costs that other councils charge, which is often significantly cheaper.”