In last week's Echo you reported 'Residents call for action over student car parking'.
I would like to draw you attention to what is happening at universities in other towns. Nearly all the top 40 universities have now banned students from parking at their campuses and many have rules that ban students from bringing cars to town.
In April 1997, the last Conservative Government passed an Act of Parliament called 'The Road Traffic Reduction Act'.It placed a duty on councils to reduce traffic congestion in towns by targeting particular classes of driver. The county councils across the country used this Act to put pressure on universities and other large employers to adopt green travel policies.
Many councils worked with their local university to place bans on student cars and parking. For instance, Durham County Council decided to review its biggest employer, Durham University. It employed an outside reviewer who recommended a 'zero car policy for students'.It allowed limited parking for those with special needs and a cycle rack for every five students. This policy is now in place and students cannot take cars to Durham. The external reviewer was Loughborough University.
A similar review took place in Charnwood by Leicestershire County Council and they too engaged Loughborough University as a reveiwer. The report shows that traffic congestion was identified on Ashby Road and Epinal Way and that there is an excess of parking on the town streets but no active policies were proposed to deal with either the congestion or the excess parking.
Reveiws of parking and congestion were undertaken across the whold country and students are no longer allowed to park at the following top universities:
Senior staff at the university say they do not want to stop students bringing cars to Loughborogh because 'it gives the university a competitive advantage in the market for students".
Which other universities are they in competition with? Nearly all of the top 40 universities have banned students from having cars and parking on the campus as have many of the other younger universities.
Because of its size relative to the town, Loughborough should have been the first university to ban student cars, not the last.
We all know how much better the traffic flows in the town when the students are on vacation. We call on the borough council and if necessary, the county council to put in place measures that restrict students bringing cars to the town, stop them parking on roads around the university and promote green travel solutions for both students and staff.
If the Echo readers would like to see the document we have presented to the Borough Council you can get the link from our web site,www.swampedbycars.blogspot.com or paste this link into your browser, http://tiny.cc/bxgEB.
Swampedbycars.