Parking restrictions in Twydall Green

For those of you who are unaware, Medway Council are unable to impose parking charges in Twydall Green.

It is an old agreement that dates back to the day the land was given to the old Gillingham Borough Council for the use of the people of Twydall.

It was with some shock, then, that I received a phone call on my way in to work on Sunday warning me that a sign had gone up in Twydall Green car park, stating a maximum parking time of 20 minutes.

Most people who know the area could tell you that you could easily spend at least as long queueing in most of the stores in the Green, if not longer, so I failed to believe even Medway Council could impose such an unrealistic restriction.

So, when I finished work, I headed over to the car park (for once I had actually managed to secure a place outside the Co-op) to find out the actual restriction is just as unfathomable:

The maximum parking time in Twydall Green is now 20 hours.

How on Earth does the council intend to police this? Are they going to employ Civil Enforcement Officers round the clock to ensure someone who parks there at 07:00 on day one is gone by the end of 20 hours at 03:00 on day two? And what of people, such as myself, who park up for something, drive off then return again within a few hours for something else?

In theory this appears to be the council restricting the people of Twydall from using the land as per the original agreement.

In practice this appears to be an unenforceable restriction which will have no affect on the people of Twydall whatsoever.

Update 03/04/09 @ 13:15

I stand corrected.

A colleague of mine at the Co-op has just informed me that the restrictions have been in place for about a year.

As with most bloggers, I rely on my sources (and this one is usually reliable) but it is up to me to check the facts in any information given before posting, or making it obvious that the facts have not been checked.

In this case the only fact I could check – and did – was that the parking restrictions were in place. I could not check that they were new.

I’ve always known parking in Twydall Green is free, so I have never looked for the parking restrictions board, so did not know it has been there for some time.

Apologies to anyone who may have found this post a bit misleading.