A parking consultation by the district council has come under fire for moving commuters further away from St Albans City Station.
The consultation affects the roads between Jennings Road and Hatfield Road, which may be turned into a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), giving residents priority over parking on their street but restricting non-residents.
Peter Norman, 76, who lives in Brampton Road, said: “The council is not considering the impact on motorists. Going up to London is bad enough on the train and then having to walk further and further out from the station.
“They are not getting to the root cause, and the root cause is the very expensive car parking at the station.
“If you go along Jennings Road at any time before 4pm there are cars which must belong to sixth formers. Where are they going to park?
“I think we should be banging against Govia and Thameslink to make them come to an agreement with the council on parking.”
Mr Norman said there was space on Brampton Road for non-residents to park, without the CPZ being necessary.
Chris White, county councillor for St Albans Central, the area which will be affected by the CPZ, said: “The reason why the consultation’s being done at all is because people are using those streets which are not local to access the station.
“There’s not much the council can do about the station. This has been raised with railway companies in the past.
“There are people who are against it but the best thing that gentleman can do is respond to the consultation.”
Michael Lovelady, the council’s head of legal, democratic and regulatory services,, said: ““We carried out an initial consultation in the area in early 2016 and it was clear that in some roads there was a clear support for a scheme.
“Residents have expressed concern about the difficulty in finding parking in some of the streets within the proposals.
“We note Mr Norman’s feedback which will be taken into account along with other comments before councillors make their decisions.”
People can leave their comments about the potential CPZ at www.stalbans.gov.uk/parking-consultations
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