A series of new ‘dash and go’ free short stay car parking spaces will be created across Andover over the next few weeks.
The project will see 15 new ‘dash and go’ spaces created, with the first two made available in Bridge Street so that visitors can park for up to 15 minutes free of charge (with no return within two hours).
A further 13 spaces are being made available across the town for 30 minutes free parking (no return within two hours). Seven of these will be located along the service road for George Yard car park; three at Borden Gates (near Sainsbury’s) and 3 at Westbrooke Close near to the Police Station.
Leader of the Council, Councillor Ian Carr, said: “As part of the Andover Summit the Council listened to what the public and local businesses told us about changes they wished to see in the town. Five working groups were set up to take these ideas forward, and the Parking and Signage working group were tasked to review parking arrangements in the town and identify positive changes.”
“One of these changes was to create a series of new spaces spread across the town to enable visitors to park and pop in to the shops for a quick errand without having to pay car parking charges. I am pleased that we are about to deliver such a positive scheme.”
“This is another example of a project undertaken as a result of the Summit, and signals our continued commitment to encourage Andover to thrive and become a town of choice.”
Work will commence on 27 May in Bridge Street to relocate and enlarge an existing loading bay to the other side of the road, and to install the new dash and go spaces. All the spaces are expected to be available and in use by early July.
Good idea but flawed as cars will be heading to free spaces , find they are taken and in confined areas we could see some interesting driving / manoeuvring. Would have been better to open high st to traffic with a central row of parking as before and with a time limit of 30mins. If cars are then unable to get parked its easy for the driver to continue around and out via bridge st with minimal fuss , pretty much as it use to be,
George Yard service road spaces (easy to drive by if no spaces) will be great for those who just want to pop into the newsagent but maybe final nail for Charlton News. I can definitely see me using that facility.
I work near Westbrook Close and people have been parking here for years without being moved on. However I wonder how the council will fit in these free spaces, between the disabled parkers and the taxi’s there’ll be no room.
Great idea if people do park for only 15 minutes I think some people will take advantage and park longer how do they plan on policing this??
Jenny, there always seem to be plenty of traffic wardens about and I have already seen them monitoring residential parking restructions within walking distance of the town centre and given their proximity these spaces should be even easier to police.
They just make a note of reg numbers as they walk buy on their checking circuit. Admittedly some drivers will get away with it but a bit like drivers who continually flout rules of the road they eventually get caught. We’ll know if tickets get issued because I believe those who ignore the rules most often are the one’s most likely to complain & wail.
You do make a good point though and one reason why I would prefer one area of free parking as close as possible to the high st. Better for those who need to dash & go and easier to police.
Well all I can say is good luck parking up ,running to the post office shops and so on getting served and all in 15 minutes more like sprint and go.
Chatty Man if you have that much to do in town then you should be walking, using the bus or parking in a pay & display car park like everyone else. These places are designed for the person who has just the one thing to buy, drop off, etc . However, I guess you could place your order at Nero’s before sprinting to the post office via the shops.
Dash & Go is primarily about convenience & saving time, not saving a parking fee.