Parking near Newbury Station will have no free drop-off zones outside the south side of the station.
Parking near Newbury Station will have no free drop-off zones outside the south side of the station.
Instead, commuters will need to be dropped off 100 metres away.
A public consultation on the plans has now been published.
Six of the responses objected to the lack of a convenient drop-off/pick-up facility.
Newbury Town Council had requested that the parking proposals should be for 30 minutes, that the disabled spaces be retained and they considered that the proposed parking restrictions did not meet the aim of encouraging greater use of public transport.
Council officers say the on-street parking bays on Station Road are located in a prime position for the convenience of rail commuters wishing to park all day and have historically provided a useful revenue stream.
They say amending the parking restrictions to allow free parking for 30 minutes will have a financial impact with lost revenue and will very likely result in the bays being significantly under-used during the day, with peak use generally only being the early morning rush and evening return of commuters.
They say this is not best use of a valuable public asset and prime parking spaces, adding that free parking for up to two hours is already available within 100m of the station in Catherine Road and within 150m on Link Road.
This, they say, should meet the needs of drivers waiting to collect or drop off commuters.
In addition to the two-hour parking bays on Link and Catherine Roads there will be a new ‘Drop-off’ facility indicated by road marking on the north side of Station Road in the area between the taxi rank and new bus stops.
This length of kerb is subject to double yellow line ‘No Waiting At Any Time’ restrictions, however the permitted exemptions that apply nationally to yellow lines allow drivers to stop for as long as is necessary to enable passengers to board or alight.
But there will be more disabled bays.
Given the comments about the lack of disabled parking facility within the Station Road scheme, the council is proposing to amend the advertised parking restriction for the first two bays located on the south side of Station Road just east of the footway link to Catherine Road to a parking restriction for Blue Badge holders only.
Last September, West Berkshire Council undertook a highway improvement scheme within Station Road to improve and upgrade the roads.
There is a complete carriageway reconstruction throughout Station Road with a new pedestrian forecourt area outside the station building.
Also, footway resurfacing and new kerbing throughout and two new pedestrian crossing points to allow users easier access to the station.
Street lighting and drainage has also been upgraded.
As a consequence of these works the previous parking restrictions were no longer enforceable due to the changed layout of kerbline and other reference points and so new parking restrictions were proposed.
Comments also included objections to the introduction of a PaybyPhone only regime in Station Road.
The council said this system has been in place on Station Road for more than 10 years.
In 2018 the ticket machines were removed as a cost-saving measure as the majority of commuters at that time only used the mobile phone app and very little cash was needing to be collected from the machines.
At that stage 80 to 90 per cent of all transactions for the parking bays fronting the station and within Station Road were made via the mobile phone app (PaybyPhone).
For those commuters reluctant to move to payment using an app there are ticket machines accepting cash within a short walk in Catherine Road and Link Road.
The comments and recommendations are all in a report to the council’s executive committee.