Other small car parks and occasional (Saturday only) car parks bring the total to 720 (maximum)

1.2 - Off-Street parking and other parking
Off-Street car parking provides a further 357 spaces (ref 2) although a large number of these are occupied by town centre residents and are not always available to visitors. Waitrose currently has spaces for 128 cars alongside the Broadwater Road car park. This is due to change.

1.3 - Car park occupancy
For much of the year, car parks are filled near to capacity (ref 3) from 9 am to 5 pm. At various times, some long stay areas are overfull with people parking outside the marked spaces.

1.4 - Parking problems in the town centre

• 1.4.1 - Although at present it is unusual for all town centre car parks to be completely full, surveys (ref 4) show that parking is perceived as a problem by motorists.

  Picture - People and cars mixed up in The Hundred

• 1.4.2 - Part of this perception probably derives from the fact that the six car parks (sec1.1) are dispersed, and travelling between them is not easy. The consequence is that there are times when some car parks may be full to capacity and others have many empty spaces. For example, on Saturday 3 June 2000 at 11am, a fairly busy day in the town, Orchard Lane had 42 empty spaces whilst all the other car parks were full.
• 1.4.3 - The Orchard Lane and Love Lane car parks have difficult access. Infrequent visitors to the town and tourists would need exceptional patience to discover all six car parks on a busy day.
• 1.4.4 - All Romsey town car parks are ‘pay as you enter’ rather than ‘pay as you leave’ which puts pressure on shoppers to return before the ticket runs out.
• 1.4.5 - In the town centre, congestion is increased by motorists waiting for free parking spaces to become available. There are only 23 such spaces (ref 5) and as is noted in the Romsey Movement and Access study: "the environmental costs such drivers are imposing on the pedestrians in the street outweigh the benefits they themselves derive". Other motorists park illegally on yellow lines.

 
1.4.6 - Surveys (ref 6) show that many shoppers indicate a need for better traffic circulation and parking. In their most wanted improvements, better parking comes second only to less traffic congestion in the town (ref 7).

Picture - Large lorry double-parked in the Market Place in order to deliver 3 fluorescent tubes to the Town Hall

• 1.4.7 - Parking is also seen as a problem by retailers and increasing it is seen as the most important issue in the town by Romsey business (ref 8).

1.5 - Problems with traffic in the town centre

• 1.5.1 - There is an inequality in the allocation of space to motorists and pedestrians in the town centre. Setting aside the recently improved Cornmarket, the problem lies in Market Place and The Hundred through to Palmerston Street. For example, on Saturday 3 June 2000 at 12 am there were around 250 pedestrians on the pavements and many others inside the shops. The 23 marked car spaces were full and, on average, there were six cars moving along the streets (ref 9). Romsey pavements are notoriously narrow and consequently;
     - 250 pedestrians had access to about one-third of the available space
     - 29 cars had access to about two-thirds of the available space.
  

1. 1.5.2 - When questioned (ref 10), retailers said they would like to see pavements widened but would not like full pedestrianisation. Retailer’s fears that pedestrianisation (and the consequent loss of parking spaces) would damage their business has been found in most places where it has been proposed. However, the evidence (ref 11) is that an improved environment attracts more people and business consequently increases.
   “The national average for the increase in trade resulting from pedestrianisation is 25%” (ref 12).
   Picture - No room for people in Bell Street
   

• 1.5.3 - 75% of shoppers in the town (ref 13) rate the environmental factor as important in the criteria they used when choosing a town to shop in. The three most wanted improvements are in traffic congestion, better parking and more pedestrianisation.
• 1.5.4 - Pedestrians who feel threatened by traffic in the town centre have some reason for concern: in the three years 1994 to 1997 there were six reported accidents (ref 14) in the Market Place and the Hundred through to Palmerston Street and, as noted in the reference, “the town was lucky that nobody was killed.”
• 1.5.5 - The hazard from traffic in the town centre is compounded by the fact that motorists’ attention is distracted by the search for a parking space. Additionally, there are some very difficult crossings for pedestrians such as that from Shaws (the chemist) to the NatWest Bank where they are threatened by traffic emerging suddenly from The Abbey, Bell Street and around the roundabout itself, none of which can be seen as crossing begins.

1.6 - Beyond Waitrose and implementation of proposals in the Romsey Movement and Access study

• 1.6.1 - If the new Waitrose is built on the Alma Road site the parking situation will be simplified as the two existing car parks, Love Lane and Orchard Lane, will merge and access will be more easily identified. However, the number of public parking spaces available will reduce from 23O to 195 ( ref 15) – a loss of 35 spaces. In addition, parking in the new Waitrose is increased strictly in proportion to the increase in floor area compared with the present floor area so the problem already evident outside the shop will be exacerbated. Presumably Waitrose expects some customers to use the public car park.
• 1.6.2 - Most of the town centre traffic problems discussed above have been identified in the Romsey Movement and Access study (ref 1). The proposed extension of the ‘shared surface’ adjoining the Cornmarket to the remainder of the Hundred, Palmerston Street, all of Bell Street and Church Street (ref 16) would improve the appearance of the town centre and if appropriately designed will also slow down traffic. The current speed of traffic through the town centre has been measured (ref 17) by police and shows that 85% of traffic travels between 14 and 24mph during busy hours. In the Movement and Access study it is stated that a reduction to 10 mph would be desirable. It is proposed here that the new shared surface scheme when implemented should have pedestrian priority. Legislation to allow this was introduced in 1999.
• 1.6.3 - The Movement and Access study also recommends the adoption of a signalisation scheme which would help traffic flow freely around the town making it a more attractive alternative to driving through the centre. However, traffic is set to increase 25% or so (ref 26) by 2010 and it seems likely that the additional congestion by that date will cause the town centre route to come back into fashion as a north/south and south/north ‘rat run’ unless something else is done to head it off. Several changes in the one-way system which would minimise through traffic are proposed in the study: it is suggested that some of these should be put in place at the same time the extended ‘shared surface’ scheme is carried out.

1.7 - Conclusions from section 1

1. Businesses, retailers and shoppers are the life blood of any town and in Romsey they would all like to see improvements in the environment, in easing traffic congestion and parking which are all set to worsen as traffic volume increases.
2. The town centre environment can be greatly improved by:
• extending the "shared surface" scheme along the Hundred, Bell Street and Church Street.
• implementing the signalisation scheme to allow traffic to flow more readily around the town together with changes to the one-way system to discourage through traffic.
• removing the 23 town centre parking spaces in Market Place and The Hundred except those required for Orange badge holders.
3. The parking situation would be greatly improved if the number of car parks is reduced and the overall number of spaces increased by concentrating them in one area.
4. The Broadwater road site is the most central for concentration and expansion of parking and this would, of course, require parking on more than one level.