COMMUTER parking on residential roads in Petersfield is "blighting" the lives of many people in the town, according to town councillor Spencer Wisdom. And he urged fellow councillors to answer their pleas for help. Mr Wisdom persuaded the town's planning committee to take up the matter with a new public consultation. They recommended that councillors should produce and deliver a questionnaire on car parking to all households in Petersfield, with members of each ward delivering the surveys to save money. Mr Wisdom said he had received a number of representations from people in Station Road who were concerned about the increasing number of cars being parked by commuters. He asked for the consultation with the public in the town so that those concerned could make their voices heard. But the recommendation was blocked by the council's finance and general purposes committee, who said the consultation shouldn't be supported. Members felt that if they went ahead with the proposal it would raise expectations in the town and cause further concern if the town council was not able, ultimately to provide a solution. They felt it was the responsibility of Hampshire County Council to get to grips with parking problems in Petersfield. Mr Wisdom said: "People are turning to us as town councillors to express their concerns because their lives are being blighted from the parking point of view and I think we ought to do everything we can and make as much noise and fuss as possible to push this issue up the political agenda at Hampshire County Council." He said he believed that if town councillors took up the issue "the county council might take a bit of notice of our parking problem, which is fairly severe". Town clerk Neil Hitch said he had contacted the county council after the planning committee's discussion of parking problems, adding: "I wanted anything we did to dovetail in with what was happening at county, but the response I got was gobbledygook jargon, which is disappointing, and we are no further forward." Mr Hitch said: 'I am happy to keep rattling cages, that is often the way to keep things high on the political agenda." Hilary Ayer said a survey of parking across Petersfield was due to be carried out after a similar exercise had been completed in Alton. "We are next on the list in East Hampshire," she said, "but Hampshire County Council just hasn't got the funding at the moment to do a car parking survey here." Bob Ayer said: "I suspect the only way one can significantly improve parking is to provide more parking spaces." He said East Hampshire District Council had carried out a survey of the business community and parts of Petersfield had been highlighted where multi- storey car parking could be considered. But he added: "I am not saying there are any plans in place." The concerns raised by town councillors are the latest in a series of debates held at Petersfield's East Hampshire District Council community forum and in the town by county councillors, which have all been attended by many outspoken and frustrated people. In 2005, residents told their district councillors that workers and commuters in Petersfield using roads close to the town centre as a huge, all day free car park were making life a living hell for hundreds of householders. They said their lives had become a nightmare having to park in other roads away from their homes, or even paying town centre car park prices while non-residents clogged their streets with cars. Many people said they have had to pay thousands of pounds over the years because they had no alternative but to use car parks. And last year they crowded into a public meeting organised by county councillor Sam Payne to demand that a long-term answer was found to the car parking crisis which was slowly strangling Petersfield.
