16/3/2007

Your Letters

Lack of parking will put pressure on neighbours

In your article of March 8, you reported that 1,450 employees of Siemens are to be relocated to the new offices at Frimley Square. The agent’s board outside the offices states that there are 644 parking spaces.

I cannot imagine by what sort of logic Surrey Heath Borough Council granted planning consent to build offices that have inadequate parking facilities before they were even let. If employees are coming from Bracknell and Newbury, they will come by car, not by a minibus service that may not be convenient to them.

There will also be additional cars from visiting consultants, suppliers and others coming in and out for meetings during the day.

Frimley Square should have been built with sufficient parking, not allowed to have about 50% of what will be required. As a result of the likely overspill, those of us in neighbouring roads will have parking restrictions outside our houses and no provision for allowing our visitors to park during restricted hours, 11am-2pm. Don’t bother trying to come for lunch.

In its consultation process Surrey Heath stated that a residents’ parking permit scheme would not be appropriate because “residents would not want to pay the cost of a permit”. If the borough council wishes to impose a scheme, it should be prepared to fund the cost of permits instead of creating inconvenience for residents as it tries to patch over a planning mistake.

I am sure the council will find some ‘formula’ that can be quoted to show that Frimley Square parking is adequate, but that will just be a technical point to cover up for the fact that the parking is insufficient.

M J Sands
Oakway Drive
Frimley

First printed in: Aldershot News and Mail