Not everyone wants public car parking at Abbeylands, Dunbar. Over 50 signatures, all people who live nearby, believe resident parking is a higher priority. Residents have no dedicated parking provision, unlike in Haddington or North Berwick, and what long term parking is now available will be reduced to nothing if current muddled plans go ahead. Among traders and residents there is a broad consensus that the problem in Dunbar is exaggerated and being used as a political football. Councillors really ought to listen to ratepayers and not follow their populist instincts.
True, some people want parking liberalised and double yellows to mean ‘time to pick up a pie’. On any day of the week you’ll observe their antics on a street near you: blocking your bus stops, abusing disabled bays, and obstructing pedestrian passing places. Daily the Abbeylands junction is blocked by such folk. But are these symptoms of a parking problem, or, a simple lack of consideration, laziness and weak enforcement? Abbeylands is the last place that you would locate public car park anyway – as it is a cul de sac and a road to nowhere. As is this and previous administrations’ irrational pursuit of car-friendly policies, mainly benefiting 2 and 3 car owning suburban classes. All contrary to its own published objectives and against government policy. Officers should follow their strategy and implement it based on evidence.
The evidence? The most recent parking study found that utilisation of parking facilities barely reached capacity during the day and concluded there was no objective shortage, but observed residents were using public places (I wonder why?). Based on this evidence, the Council consulted on extending the length of time a car can park from 60m to 90m barely a month ago. A welcome change that would decrease car turnover and have a calming effect too? So who would not support a little more time for visitors to browse shops, have meetings and grab a coffee too. Safer too, as there’d be less cars jostling for space and better use the existing facilities, which just need better signage?
But no, Dunbar has become a “drive by” convenience economy rather than a destination. Over the years ‘beggar thy neighbour’ policies have favoured cheap (and not so cheap) convenience stores and takeaways with the result that our High Streets are now much less welcoming to visitors and increasingly less desirable for residents. But it doesn’t have to be that way. To paraphrase Malcolm Fraser, Scottish government adviser on town centre regeneration, vibrant town centres will be the ones where people also want to live in and without the stigma of being seen as second class.
As for Abbeylands, it is crying out for an imaginative street scheme and some trees, but not a car park. It would be an ideal place for a pocket park or a quiet community garden or even a smaller social housing scheme with nice gardens for the elderly. At worst it could be a private housing development, which would help defray the previously sunk costs.
High street residents can add their names to the petition here:
http://abbeylandsresidents.
Letter sent to East Lothian Courier and the East Lothian News