Campaign to address the parking system in Medway

AlanWCollins is today launching a new campaign in Medway – this time against the car parking system presently enforced (or, in some cases, not) by Medway Council.

In this first stage, I am using a Facebook group and a Google Docs survey to gather support, opinions and contributions to the Campaign Against Rip-off Parking in Medway (catchy title!).

Before I continue further, I should like to stress that this is an independent campaign, which places no blame at the feet of any individual person or political party and believes that a cross-party plan is the best hope for Medway motorists.

So where did this all start? Well, admittedly, it started by signing my name against a petition being organised by Labour councillors (presented at the last meeting of Medway Council by Cllr Vince Maple) – urging the council to change the charging end time for the Riverside car park to 7pm as opposed to 10pm.

That was last month. Today I decided to launch a Facebook group to try to get wider awareness and support for the issue – by making the same statement, but for all council car parks: Medway Council should stop charging us to park our cars after 7pm. (I do not believe residential parking times should be changed as they have (mostly) been decided upon logically).

With plans and possibilities for potential protest(s) floating in my mind, and in a further attempt to receive ideas from other opponents of the present system, I created a survey (using Google Docs) to gauge opinions and for people to offer their ideas. Please feel free to take the survey here. No confidential information will be asked for.

For the moment, I am going to remain tight-lipped about exactly what is going to happen once I have received all the responses. However, I will collate them and produce a report based upon their outcome, with recommendations which will be presented to Medway Council, Medway’s 55 councillors and the local media, as well as being presented here.

It may not be scientific, but it will go a considerable way to addressing the failures of the current parking system.

I am hoping that this will not descend into another political attack campaign, but instead yield positive results to produce a positive plan for a positive way forward.

So please get involved and help shape what I hope will be one of the most effective Medway-wide campaigns in recent years.