Council pauses new restrictions on visitor permits following concerns raised by Liberal Democrat Councillors

The Council has announced that it is pausing its plans to restrict the number of visitor permits available to households within the city’s Residents’ Parking Zones. The announcement follows a consultation on the controversial Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), which received scores of concerns from local residents, and doubts raised by Liberal Democrat Councillors.

Questions from the Liberal Democrats revealed that 3,000 people per year bought additional permits beyond the new proposed limit. This means that 8% of all households within Residents’ Parking Zones are set to be affected by the new cap.

Echoing these concerns, Cllr Nicholas Coombes (Liberal Democrat, Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze), member of the Council’s Transport and Connectivity Committee, said: 

“I’m glad that the Council has listened to the feedback from local residents, and has decided to pause the implementation of this unfair restriction. Many anxious residents have contacted me to explain that they use visitor permits for a variety of reasons, including letting grandparents support childcare, and they are worried that they will exceed the proposed cap.

“I will continue to push for the reversal of this policy so that residents can continue to welcome visitors without worrying about an artificially low limit."

Ahead of the meeting where the Council announced the pause, Cllr Nicholas Coombes submitted the following statement to highlight the concerns of local residents:

The provision of Residents’ Parking Zones is a service that the Council provides to residents. We implement them when asked to do so by residents, not as a way to make money. Residents pay for privileged access, for them and their visitors, to park on streets in their neighbourhood. This bargain breaks down if we impose restrictions on residents that makes controlled parking zones less desirable than no controls at all.

Unfortunately, I was not at the September 2024 meeting when parking restrictions were first discussed, so I don’t know what was considered at the time. I can understand inflationary increases to fees, and even the logic behind charging for visitor permits which were once free. However, I do not understand, or support, imposing a low cap on the number of visitor permits available.

The Traffic Regulation Order recently consulted upon, would reduce the availability of visitor permits to less than one per week, with no possibility of buying more. Mooted alternatives like Pay and Display are not true alternatives – the provision is not available in many parking zones, and has a maximum duration of a few hours. Households who currently receive a visitor by car each week would have to turn them away. Many residents have contacted me, anxious that the visitor permit cap will constrain the ability of grandparents to support with childcare, for example.

If visitor permits are chargeable, there is no sense in constraining their numbers – especially when there are no caps to the number of vehicle permits per household, or the use of pay and display parking. This provision of the Traffic Regulation Order should be rejected. Regulation should be a mechanism to make things better, not worse, for the people we serve.