As everyone by now is acutely aware, we are about to face one of the largest threats to our town centre in many years, On-street Parking Charges. Walton town centre fell into a sorry state in the late eighties and early nineties and it was desperate for re-development. This re-development came in the shape of The Heart Shopping Centre. Our independent shops have seen a small benefit from this development as people started to come ... Read More

The next stage of Drewitts Court study by Elmbridge Borough Council seems to have taken place this week in that some new white lines and warnings have been painted in the car park. It is quite encouraging that if you follow the newly painted arrows after coming down from the upper level the arrows actually direct you to exit via Bridge Street!! The arrows clearly discourage any driver from going toward the Hepworth Way exit; ... Read More

This is an exact copy of a letter written to Honest John in the Motoring section of the Telegraph newspaper Saturday 25th June 2011. Beans mean fines At a recent party, I became trapped in a corner by a sozzled council officer. The more the guy drank, the more he spilt the beans. His council contracts out its parking and enforcement matters to a third party. The contractor guarantees to collect a minimum number of ... Read More

As you will be aware there is a proposal from the Council to close the Bridge Street exit of the Drewitts Court Car Park. The reason put forward for closure by the Council is: ….the car park is used as a short cut for cars just passing through, and “traffic passing through the car park is generally travelling at speed”. Closure of the exit to Bridge Street therefore would “improve pedestrian safety”….. A petition of ... Read More

Some of our car parks have been re-designated and revised parking charges come into effect from the 6th June of particular importance are: Drewitts Court Car Park is re-designated from a long to a short-stay “shoppers” car park and the ground floor restricted to pay and display parking only for up to 4 hours maximum stay.  The Halfway Car Park is re-designated from a town to a village car park. The all-day tariff for all village ... Read More

Below are the tariffs which will become effective in Walton once the new on-street charges are applied: Hersham Road, Rydens Road, Station Avenue/Halfway Green:  £1 per hour with a two-hour limit, but with free initial 30-mintue period. Ashley Road, New Zealand Avenue, High Street, Bridge Street and Thames Street:   £1 per hour with a two-hour limit, but without free initial period. It will cost 60 pence per hour on all other roads except Ashley Park Road ... Read More

Again it would appear that SCC does not listen to what the people of Walton and Elmbridge want! The earlier post by Chris Sadler gave details of the Cabinet debate which took place on the 10th May regarding on-street parking charges. Detailed below is the recorded vote which decided that the proposal for on-street parking charges would go ahead in Walton and other towns and villages in the borough. The Lead Petitioner presented the petition ... Read More

 Update on Introduction of Charges for On-Street Parking Following the huge public outcry against the blanket introduction of charges for on-street car parking across Surrey, an electronic petition was raised to ask that the proposals be withdrawn. In roughly a month, 26,300 e-signatures were added to the petition, which forces Surrey County Council to hear the petition formally presented and debate whether to accept its recommendation or not. The debate was held today (May 10th) ... Read More

DREWITTS COURT CAR PARK   PROPOSALS FOR CLOSURE OF EXIT TO BRIDGE STREET WITHDRAWN A WIN FOR THE RESIDENTS OF WALTON   About 3 weeks ago the Agenda Papers for the Elmbridge Borough Council Cabinet meeting on 30th March were issued. On the Agenda was a series of recommendations about issues relating to the Council’s Off-Street Car Parks. The most important of these recommendations related to the reduction in all-day parking charges in the Council’s ... Read More

Surrey County Council is determined to implement a Pay and Display scheme across Elmbridge, the implementation start date for Walton is scheduled May-June this year. The Pay and Display plans for Surrey identify 3500 parking bays of which 177 are in Walton, these extend from roads in the town centre up to and including Station Avenue /Rydens Road. The implementation cost of the scheme across Surrey is approximately £1.5m and revenue generated will be £2.5m ... Read More