Link to 'Time is Tight' web site set up by local residents
Mike Weatherley – Common sense
is needed on Patcham Court Farm
Patcham Court Farm has a colourful history and a park and ride scheme on the site is just the latest proposal to be debated. Mike Weatherley, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion says:
“For some situations, park and ride is a good idea - if the right site can be found. But Patcham Court Farm is the wrong site. It is the most expensive and there are no other transport links currently in the area. I also question whether the claims about how many people would use park and ride is correct. I doubt that people want to be lumbered carrying shopping all day? Or want to add an extra leg to their journey on a night out in the many entertainment venues in the city? So these facilities are not the ‘one stop’ solution that some claim.
“Park and ride at Patcham Court Farm was considered in 1998 and the council head of economic development at the time, John Packman, said “Park and ride was needed in north Brighton but it was unlikely that Patcham Court Farm was the right site.” If this was the case in 1998, then it most certainly still is now as nothing has changed. It is worth noting that the new scheme is nearly double the number of parking spaces than the original proposal. There is also a question about the impact on the A23 and A27 – tailbacks onto these roads could be very dangerous.
Mike with Cllrs Brian Pidgeon and Geoffrey Theobald OBE and local residents who would be evicted under the scheme
“And we should not be too glib about the five
homes that would need to be demolished either – it has been the home of one
resident for over 35 years.
Waitrose put forward plans in 1997 for a new
supermarket. They were turned down
because…………..of traffic volumes. This
proposal increases the volumes that were considered for that proposal so once
again, how can it now be acceptable if it wasn’t then.
And I
have seen many quotes from people supporting the scheme that if this goes ahead
we can then ‘slash car parking in the centre’. This is the wrong approach.
An integrated approach recognises that no one option is the solution. To
‘Unblock Brighton’ a whole range of options need to be adopted –
approaches that simply aim to exclude cars from our City do not consider the
whole picture. Our tourism and retail industries in the centre of Brighton rely
on people. It is incumbent upon Politicians to sort out ways to make it easy for
people to get into the centre by the method they choose. All I hear from Labour,
the Greens and the Lib Dems are proposals to keep people OUT of Brighton.
What I want to see is a properly thought through integrated transport policy. But sadly this latest example proves the Labour councillors are simply plucking ideas out of thin air and incapable of leading a debate or putting forward imaginative ideas.”