Market Street parking

Mon 12 Jul 2010, 15:02

I'm a bit bemused by two recent changes along Market Street.

One is the sudden proliferation of traffic cones and strategically placed wheelie bins, seemingly to mark out personal parking spaces.

Parking is always going to be at a premium in a densely packed town centre with narrow streets; this does mean we all have to be flexible about where we park, so that spaces don't sit unused. Coned-off empty spaces only make life more difficult for other Market Street residents looking for a space, or for those using Charlbury businesses such as the Post Office or Evenlode Books. There are sometimes good reasons to briefly 'reserve' a space - if you're expecting a large heavy delivery, or a disabled guest who cannot easily walk far - and my apologies if these are indeed reserved for such a reason; but it would perhaps be polite to explain this with a little note on the wheelie bin in question.

Secondly, I set off for work this morning only to find a polite but anonymous note under my windscreen wiper asking the car's owner (i.e. me) to find "somewhere less residential" for "long-term" parking.

The car had, I think, been in that space - roughly opposite the Quakers - for about a week because I got the train to work last week (if it had been left any longer it wouldn't have started this morning...) - you know, being green and all that. Given that the car usually spends more time away from Charlbury than in it, I don't find it too unreasonable for someone who lives on Market Street to park on Market Street for a week. I would of course have preferred to park outside our house rather than further along, but unsurprisingly, the spaces outside our house were full!

I would love to have had this discussion with the person who left the note, but unfortunately they didn't have the courage of their convictions to sign it. Next time someone harangues me about posters' manners on this forum, I shall wryly observe that the forum is actually better-mannered than the rest of Charlbury life - you can't post anonymously here...

Richard
(11 Market Street)