A Letter to the Editor from Councillor Rob BARNETT, expressing views shared by a majority of Whitby residents, but not – alas! – by the ‘powers that be’.
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Dear Editor,
Further Thoughts
Many thanks for publishing my letter concerning the performance, or lack, of the Councils in delivering on various promises and opportunities afforded by the move to devolve several powers to Local Councils:
By way of illustration, I will look at two areas that I hope will provoke food for thought, namely Housing and Parking.
Firstly, the Housing crisis.
This blights our town and that of many other coastal towns. It is clear that land for building is in short supply because our boundaries are formed by the North Sea and the North York Moors national Park. Thus, available plots are finite. However, our planners have failed to grasp the opportunities that do exist.
Why does the Local Council not buy and renovate good housing stock when it becomes available in the town? Dare I say, “Council Housing”? In other words, build up the housing stock for locals, as opposed to losing it to more unwelcome holiday lets.
Why not put a proviso on house sales, stating that they can only go to people who reside or work in the town? Affordable homes are rare. What is affordable in Whitby, when we are in the “low pay capital of Britain”? This may sound all doom and gloom, but given some imagination, things could be better.
I could go on, but all it takes is for the Councils to research other schemes and come up with a ‘Plan’ and then ‘Deliver’ for the benefit of residents.
Secondly, I will now turn to the everlasting problem of Parking – obviously not unconnected to the housing issue.
The problem is obvious; too many cars trying to park in old, narrow streets. At present, we have one totally inadequate Park and Ride and a shortage of a decent bus services serving the town.
I would argue that what we need is:
- Better Park and Ride facilities – e.g. another favility on the East side.
- Resident-Only Parking Permits – this would force people to use Park and Rides and the local bus services. Clearly, a small fee would need to be charged to residents to enable proper policing of the scheme. It is impossible to solve the parking issues without recognising the costs involved. However, the cost of doing nothing is wors; note the reports of anti-social parking in and around the town centre.
I have only touched on two issues. Clearly, the challenges we face are all interrelated. Unfortunately, our Councils seem to be happy to wallow in small talk and the latest prevailing orders.
In short, we fail to address the issues that face local people.
Whitby people – it’s time to stand up and be counted!
Cllr Rob Barnett
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