Marlow Town Mayor Jocelyn Towns led a team of Councillors, members of the Marlow Society, The Chamber of Trade and Rotary Club of Marlow who turned out to gather signatures for the petition: ‘Say NO to parking meters in Marlow’ on the High Street on Saturday, 4th November. (The online version of the petition can be found here: https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=4302)
Jocelyn said: “It was so busy with people queueing up to sign that I had to buy more clipboards and pens to accommodate the numbers. We collected well over 1300 signatures and with over 4,500 on the online version we’re well on our way to having a great sample of the community supporting this initiative. We want to show BCC that we really don’t want paid-for parking in Marlow because it will damage our vibrant and buzzy town. We have seen the impact of this on other towns – for example Henley – whose residents now come to Marlow to shop.
“The County Council, with the District Council, needs to review the whole parking strategy in Marlow. It’s important that they work together with the Town Council to understand fully the severe parking limitations in the town. Developers should be required to provide enough parking spaces with new builds. We believe the local parking guidance is out of date and inaccurate, and needs to be changed. Let’s not make it difficult to come and shop! Retailers have had it hard enough with hugely increased business rates.”
A starting point, the Mayor suggests, could be putting decked parking in Riley Road car park.
