Parking Review April 2003, p.13  Landor Publishing

Against the Grain
An alternative take on parking issues: This month : Bob Pilbeam

Making room for coaches
robsm.jpg (14603 bytes)

Coach Parking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have your say:
If you have any reactions to ideas expressed in this article, or ideas of your own, please email them to:
ed.pr@landor.co.uk

 Coach parking is not a sexy subject. There is no money in it and it is not a vote winner. Why is there is no money in coach parking? For a good part of the day the coach is working, so it does not need to park. It will be visiting hotels or tourist attractions, some of which provide free parking. Many towns and cities also place daytime restrictions on coach parking while providing ample parking facilities for cars. Why? A coach takes up the space of three or four cars, so the car provides a better return financially. it is clear then that there is little incentive to provide facilities.

And why is it not a vote winner? Business rates do not go to local authorities. As tourist attractions, shops and hotels get business from coach passengers they are therefore not of interest to local councillors, who are seeking to be popular with residents. These residents do not tend to like coaches parked in their area, or large groups of tourists wandering their streets.

However, there are strong arguments for legislation which will force local authorities to provide coach parking, especially in London and other areas which have implemented a ban on coaches and HGVs parking on the street at night. For example, there is a night-time street parking ban on coaches in the City of Westminster, but no provision of off-street coach parking in the city. Neighbouring Camden also has no off-street coach parking, but allows coaches to use coach bays at night

In south London, the closure of the Tooley Street coach park near London Bridge was poorly advertised. Coaches looking for it now find themselves with no legal place to park. Eurostar, meanwhile, shows little interest in looking after customers arriving by coach at Waterloo International. In contrast, Heathrow and Gatwick airports have a sophisticated system in place to look after coaches and their passengers.

Local authorities are becoming greener by the day, yet fail to provide short-term coach lay-overs, thus encouraging the vehicles to cruise or park with their engines running. Coach drivers

 are legislated to a far higher degree than even bus drivers and by law have to take breaks away from the vehicle at regular intervals. The current lack of facilities is at times forcing coach drivers to break the law. And because coaches carry a larger proportion of the elderly and young, facilities should be provided for safety and mobility considerations.

So how could we go about ensuring that there are proper coach parking facilities? Local authorities should not be allowed to enforce night time bans on coaches parking on-street if they do not have adequate and practical off-street parking facilities for coaches in a tourist area. My belief is that we also need to create legislation to ensure new hotels and tourist attractions provide either on-site or nearby, adequate set-down/pick-up and parking facilities for coaches. Also an independent body should assesses each case. Tourist attractions and hotels should have a responsibility to provide information to their clients on coach parks.

Encouragement should be given to local authorities to make 106 agreements with developers to provide coach parking facilities. The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea entered into such a 106 agreement with Tescos to provide an underground coach park at its site on Warwick Road.

So it is not all doom and gloom. Birmingham realises it is not doing all that well, but is making strides to improve the situation. Rochester has provided set-down/pick-up and off-street coach parking near the town centre. Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon and Windsor cope very well with tourist coaches, while the London Eye on the South Bank is party to a 106 agreement with Lambeth council to manage the 16,000 or so coaches that visit the attraction annually.

This system is applauded by the coach industry. It is just frustrating that coaches have nowhere to park after setting their passengers down!

Bob Pilbeam is a former Metropolitan Police officer, and worked in the Met's traffic section. He is now an independent consultant and Blue Badge tourist guide