Last month I published an article on these pages about a meeting I’d held with a cabinet member in county hall a few weeks before to express my concerns about the council’s proposals to introduce parking charges along the sea front at Crimdon. Please see post dated Wednesday 27 March 2024 for full background details.
As you’ll see from that article I suggested at the meeting that the council should reconsider its plans to charge visitors to park at Crimdon, partly because it would drive visitors away from the area but also because it was unfair to force people who come to the beach and dene for exercise to pay to park.
In response the council agreed to suspend charges for the time being to allow consideration of a fairer scheme that would align with a traffic regulation order designed to prevent dangerous and inconsiderate parking along the front. Regular readers of these pages will be aware of reports from last summer of vehicles parking outside a private dwelling just off the front, and also in areas that risked obstructing access for emergency response vehicles.
I’ve received a revised proposal tonight from the council which in effect indicates free parking in bays along the front at Crimdon, with just a handful of bays to the north of the site subject to parking charges. The council believes that these revisions will ‘manage occupancy’ and free up spaces to enable parking at peak times where necessary (see image below).
I’ve reproduced above a map of the northern section of the front at Crimdon setting out the new proposals for parking. The area hatched in blue at the top left of the image shows a small overspill section where vehicles will be charged to park, leaving the rest of the bays along the front free.
The image below shows the southern side of the site where parking outside the parking bays will be prohibited. Specifically this applies to parking outside the private dwelling nearby too. In both images the yellow lines shown in the map are designated no parking zones designed to prevent parking along the open grassed verges and prevent any further incidents of careless parking along the front which in the past has obstructed access to emergency vehicles.
If you have any comments on these proposals please contact trafficconsultations@durham.gov.uk before 17 May 2024.
