Back to the list

Review of car parking at Knightswick Shopping Centre

Car parking enforcement at the Knightswick Shopping Centre is to change in response to residents’ concerns.

At a meeting of Castle Point Borough Council’s Cabinet on 19 July, councillors agreed to transfer the management of the centre’s car park to Chelmsford City Council which manages all its other off-street parking enforcement from October.

The Automatic Number Plater Recognition (ANPR) system at Knightswick will also be replaced with pay and display machines and enforcement patrols.

Cabinet also tasked the Environment, Policy and Scrutiny Committee with reviewing the car park’s terms and conditions as part of its wider review of off-street parking.

Cllr Michael Fuller, Portfolio Holder for Environment, said: “As an administration we promised we would listen to residents and ensure that the Council is run in their best interests.

“Clearly, ensuring successful income generation from our off-street parking is important, but as is responding to residents’ concerns.

“In this instance we have listened to what we were being told about the way parking enforcement at Knightswick was being operated and, owing to the current parking enforcement contract coming to an end, have been able to act swiftly do address this.”

Residents had voiced concerns in relation to the fairness of the parking regime at the Knightswick and the number of fines which were issued and later had to be cancelled.