The latest on long-running planned project in Bury St Edmunds to improve residents’ parking

There are hopes improvements to residents’ parking in a historic town centre will happen as quickly as possible now after years of delays.

Community leader Vivien Gainsborough Foot wants the long-fought for changes to residents’ parking in Zone D, in central Bury St Edmunds, to be her ‘swan song’ as she is resigning as chairman of the Churchgate Area Association later this year.

The association, which represents the town’s medieval grid, has long campaigned on tackling parking problems there, but the project, which would include extra spaces, has been beset by delays.

The improvements to residents’ parking in the town centre have been some 10 years in the making.

Mrs Gainsborough Foot said: “It’s just completely mad it’s taken so long. I’m not asking them to build a whole new concert hall in Whiting Street, am I?”

The changes, which were proposed for all of Bury’s 12 parking zones, were designed to make it easier for householders to park near their homes.

Generally, the new operating hours were planned to be extended to 8pm, affecting Mondays to Saturdays. Also in Zone D, new residents’ parking bays were planned to be created and there was also set to be more opportunity for residents to park by some shared bays becoming ‘resident permit holders only’.

Following consultation on Suffolk County Council’s traffic order last year - and after questions by the Bury Free Press - it has come to light that the proposal is for two zones to stay as they are, Zones J (Eastgate Street Area) and L (Grove Road). There would also be no changes to Zone D’s Friars Lane.

After learning this, Cllr Richard Rout, who had opposed changes impacting the Dove pub and West End Fish and Chips in Zone M, is continuing to pursue an alternative way forward for Zone M.

A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: “Following a traffic order consultation last summer, and on the back of public feedback, a proposal was formulated.

“Following further discussions with local members it has been proposed that another area be removed from the traffic order.

“We will now work with West Suffolk Council to identify a way forward with this proposal as quickly as possible, although we are still in the preliminary stages of this and cannot say how long this may take.”

It had been planned for new residents’ parking bays to be created in Friars Lane, but it had faced opposition.

Last year, the Free Press did a story with father Chris Battle, who said the plans for residents’ parking bays near the special needs unit the Nest would make an already ‘dangerous’ situation in the road even worse.

With Friars Lane now taken out of the residents’ parking proposal, the Free Press asked West Suffolk Council - which runs the residential permit parking scheme - how many new residents’ parking spaces would now be created in Zone D, as the Churchgate Area Association had understood it would be around 30.

The spokesman said an extension of existing residents’ parking bays in Zone D would hopefully accommodate an additional 33 parking spaces across the zone.

Mrs Gainsborough Foot said she would be ‘absolutely delighted’ when the changes come in.

Award-winning pub the Dove, in Hospital Road, had submitted a four-page objection to the proposed timing change to the residents’ parking in Zone M.

Cllr Rout, who represents that area, explained there were concerns over the impact of the new residents’ parking hours on the pub’s trade, as customers would also park on the street.

Dove landlord Roger Waters told the Free Press: “The Dove is near 200 years old, built as a beerhouse to serve the local growing community. Has the love for a true British pub run out of time?”

However, the results of consultation in 2022 showed that in Zone M, 68 per cent of those who responded were in favour of the changes there.

Cllr Rout said: “I'm now keen to see what alternative way forward can be found for Zone M, that improves residents' parking availability but doesn't damage local businesses."

He said he had been given the impression that he had been delaying the residents’ parking changes across the town, after holding off on the sign off this year due to his concerns over Zone M. However, he now believes this isn’t the case.

Cllr David Taylor, cabinet member for operations at West Suffolk Council, said: “These changes are designed to make it easier for residents living around Bury St Edmunds town centre to park close to their home.

“Public engagement was carried out in 2022 and the changes put forward had the backing of the majority of residents. Some of the changes in our own control – such as making it so that residential permit holders could park in our car parks overnight at no extra cost and including vehicle registration details on the permit - have been implemented.

“Now the remaining changes are to be brought in through a traffic regulation order by Suffolk County Council. These include extra parking bays in the Churchgate area which we know residents living there are very keen to have, and extending the hours of operation to 8pm in some zones.”