“On line” web guide scrapped
Car parking space availability signs still not working
The Council has about 20 signs on arterial roads which, until about 5 years ago, showed how many empty parking spaces there were at each car park.
Such facilities became commonplace on City streets more than a decade ago. They’re still to be found at many tourist destinations.
The FOI response has also revealed that the counters which allow the number of spaces to be identified, will only be reactivate on three of the signs before the end of the financial year.
The Council – after promising that its on line service, which also gives a guide to finding space, would be updated – has now been decommissioned. The number of spaces shown has been incorrect for several years.
Users are now referred to the iTravel web site which contains only a list of car parks (and without an indication of the number of spaces at each).
Commercial sites like https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/ are much better.
There were also hopes that space availability would be linked to GPS systems to allow “Sat Nav” users to optimise their routes. Now it seems that driving round the inner ring road will continue to be the only way of finding a space.
That’s bad news for a Council leadership that claims to be trying to reduce pollution levels in the City centre, by cutting out unnecessary travel. Its also bad news fro some City centre traders who sell goods that require a purchaser to have access to their own transport.