East Grinstead Society

Letter to Mid Sussex District Council regarding East Grinstead town parking

Letter to Mid Sussex District Council regarding East Grinstead town parking

I am following up our previous letter to the CEO, dated March 22, in the light of the new consultation on the proposed extension to paid parking hours with renewed opposition.

The Society continues to believe that the extension of fees to cover evenings, weekends and public holidays will negatively affect the viability of the Town and its community.

Many of the community activities, including those of the East Grinstead Society, take place in the evenings and are largely run by volunteers. Many churchgoers use free car parking on Sunday to attend services.
Shops rely on the parking status quo to maintain their viability. The extension of parking hours will clearly cause immense difficulty for community groups, churchgoers and theatregoers.

We also consider that the data used to develop this proposal is clearly flawed. We note the report from WSP which states that there are ‘no major development proposals for East Grinstead’ within the 2019 Housing Supply Position. As you will know this is no longer the case with the proposed Imberhorne Farm development under consultation.

We already are experiencing the effects of higher charges. We call on MSDC not to take the further damaging step of imposing evening, weekend and public holiday charges to damage further our Town.

Yours sincerely

James Baldwin
Chair, East Grinstead Society