People power sees single road left out of parking permit roll-out - but which remain?

Councillor Mike Stonard. Pic: Archant. (Image: Archant)

Following the unusual step of conducting a second consultation, councillors agreed on Thursday to bring in parking permits for the so-called Welsh streets in the Golden Triangle area of Norwich.

However, one road that will not be included in the roll-out is Caernarvon Road, after a petition calling for it to be excluded was submitted to the Norwich highways agency committee.

A decision over introducing permits to a string of roads in the area, including Denbigh Road, Milford Road and Swansea Road, was originally due to be made in March, but confusion over the first consultation saw a second held.

One constant in both consultations was that those living on Caernarvon Road were broadly against the proposals, with 48 of the 62 people who responded to the proposals objecting.

And after a petition signed by more than 100 people was also handed in, the committee agreed to leave the road a permit-free zone for now and re-assess the situation in March.

This is despite concerns from members and officers that leaving it as the only permit-free road in the immediate area would leave it vulnerable to being abused by commuters and other motorists.

Sandi George, who lives on Caernarvon Road and was one of those who spoke against permits at the meeting, said: "Absolutely nothing will be gained for Caernarvon Road by forcing parking permits upon us, except to hit our pockets.

"Leave us alone and let us see if we are impacted by what you are proposing to do around us. Let us be the experiment and if it doesn't work, you can say 'we told you so' - but give us that chance."

Mike Stonard, one of the city councillors on the committee, said: "What I'm hearing is people on the road see permits as a solution to a problem that does not exist, but my concern would be that by doing nothing here, the problem would be created."