The issue of parking on Marygate has resurfaced as a hot topic, thanks to the efforts of Louise Lough of family business ‘At Home with Junk and Disorderly’ on Marygate, Berwick.
During the Annual Town Meeting in May, Ms Lough emphasised the need to bring back parking on Marygate and she has went on to create a petition that has so far garnered 241 signatures.
‘The idea behind bringing parking back is to bring people back into the town centre. People like the convenience,’ she stated. ‘When they had an hour’s free parking, people would go in and do a few errands which brought money into the town.
‘Parking would also slow down the flow of traffic, which is flying down the High Street causing a hazard,’ she added. ‘There’s no point having a wide pavement if there’s no-one walking on it.’
Ms Lough pointed out that the previous parking spaces had room for more than forty cars. ‘So that’s at least forty people every hour coming into Marygate to do business.’
The business community and residents alike have expressed their frustration over the lack of cooperation between Northumberland County Council (NCC) and Berwick Town Council on the matter. Lough called for a unified effort to address the town’s issues. ‘NCC and Berwick Town Council need to start working together. There’s no point Berwick Town Council saying ‘it’s not us, it’s them’. They should all be co-operating and getting things done to improve the town.’
On the wider issue of community action in local governance, Ms Lough said: ‘It’s important that people step up like this, to make things happen in their town.’
The petition states: ‘We also believe that this could be implemented easily simply by moving bollards and painting lines; no major works are required, and we ask NCC to make this happen as soon as possible for the sake of businesses and to make life easier for all.’
NCC’s petition pages state: ‘Petitions about local issues (containing a minimum of 50 signatures) will be considered by the local area committee meetings.’
View and sign the Marygate Parking petition here: https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Councillors/Involve.aspx
Louise Lough of family business At home with junk and disorderly in Berwick.
At the annual town meeting, Louise mentioned the subject of bringing back parking on marygate, and she has now got 241 signatures on a petition set up with Northumberland County Council.
It is important that people step up like this. Absolutely it’s important that people get up to make things happen in their town.
The idea behind bringing parking back is to bring people back into the town center. Full stop. People like convenience. Full stop. People used to pop in to a few shops. When they had an hours free parking, they would go in and do a few errands. Full stop. This would also slow down the flow of traffic, which is flying down the high street and is a hazard for pedestrians, besides which, there’s no point having a wide pavement if there’s no one walking on it, you may as well use it for parking. It worked really well in the past when there were around 40 spaces. So that’s at least 40 people coming into town spending money. It was at the annual town meeting, I felt I had to say my piece and get people involved. Many people come into the shop and say it’s a problem that there’s no parking on Marygate, added to which NCC
and Berwick town council need to start working together. There’s no point Barrett town council saying it’s not us. They should be cooperating and getting things done to Improve the town. I
Wow I cannot think of anything worse than bringing back parking!! What a really bad contrived idea.
Get rid of parking off the high street and Mary gate All together and employ a street cleaner . The streets are so dirty with Bird droppings and dog fouling tis little wander no-one is drawn to Berwick .What community wants car parking back in Berwick Marygate ? Who is this community ?. The only people I see parking are the disabled . Stop free parking to tourists .