Last week, Leeds City Council began what it has described as a consultation process for withdrawing residents parking permits in Otley town centre. This means that while homeowners existing permits are to be honoured, new residents or car owners will not be issued with one.

This is likely to result in a fall in the value of the property due to the 2000 per annum that a new resident or new car owner would have to pay to use a car park. The alternative being to squeeze onto a street not requiring parking permits.

Parking at the back of the properties in the access road would increase resulting in refuse trucks not being able to collect the dust bins, and restricting access for the emergency services.

It feels like the council has an anti-parking strategy for Otley residents that started around five years ago.

This issue all started when the ability to park outside houses in certain streets in Otley was taken away. Leeds Town Council was obliged at the time to provide alternative parking for these residents. This seems to have been forgotten.

Around 2005/06 visitor parking was retracted which has resulted in issues getting work carried out on properties. Only last week a window cleaner and another contractor received a ticket despite him having to park his car outside the property for Health & Safety reasons.

Other contractors who need access to the front of the property to carry out work have also had similar issues, and sometimes it has been difficult to get them to work at all due to the parking issue.

Residents parking bays for other car parks in Otley have also been removed, meaning that at busy times at the weekend it is really difficult to park at all, and is especially hard for those elderly residents or families with very young children.

The City Council says it is only looking at the prospect of withdrawing the parking permits; but do they really believe they would be able to push this through without a fight? This is just another example of them wasting residents, and its own, time; and you can bet that the council wouldnt be keen on lowering the Council Tax band for the affected properties.

Residents have been given two weeks to lodge objections yet many people, as of 7 February, have not been officially notified by the council.

Help the campaign to allow residents of Otley to park without charge and sign this petition.

We also have an email address for questions or information on the campaign:
KeepOtleyParking@googlemail.com