A survey shows there are more than enough spaces for every resident in Keswick’s B&B back streets to park their cars outside their homes — when there are no tourists or workers in town.
The total number of parking spaces in the usually congested narrow streets between Penrith Road and Ambleside Road/Manor Brow is about 650, while the number of people living there is just over 300.
The figures were obtained by local traffic campaigner Glenn Savage and councillor Tony Lywood, Keswick’s representative on transport authority Cumbria County Council, which carried out walkabouts during full lockdown in April and May when there were no tourists and very few workers in Keswick.
They indicate that a residents’ parking permit scheme — one of the options in the Keswick Transport Study — would work for the area.
However, the study has been put on a back burner because of coronavirus.
Mr Lywood warned: “There are going to be no quick fix solutions. Nothing will happen until proper consultation goes through.”
He said it had taken six years of campaigning before Keswick’s first speed indicator device was installed at Chestnut Hill earlier this month.
Mr Lywood predicted there would be some “horse trading” between what the local B&B owners and residents wanted, and that they would all be consulted before any changes, such as disc parking or residents’ permits, were brought in.
Town clerk Lynda Walker attends Keswick Transport Study meetings and she said the intention was to make sure the document and its agreed solutions for congestion and parking problems in the town “did not get put on the shelf”.
However, she admitted: “The parking scheme requires funding and could take up to a couple of years to be implemented. A lot depends on funding being available or sought from other sources.”
The Lake District National Park Authority is working with the county, borough and town councils and has set up an implementation group to speed up the introduction of new transport measures.
Its first act was to approve the one-way system in Station Street and St John’s Street. Other objectives are to increase cycling and walking.
Mr Savage — addressing last week’s online town council meeting — pleaded with councillors to put pressure on the other authorities to press ahead rather than delay.
“Let’s get started,” said Mr Savage, who added that the county council had got close to introducing a disc parking scheme before the pandemic halted everything. “I have been going at this a long time and we seem to have come to a bit of a roadblock at the moment,” he said.
Keswick mayor Paul Titley empathised with him, saying: “COVID can’t stop the progress of civilisation for 18 months.”
