In recent years responsibility for the enforcement of parking restrictions, for example along Station Road, in Cholsey has moved from the police to Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) who have employed an agency to carry out the work.

Enforcement has increased considerably as a result.  Some residents in the affected area who have no off-street parking available to them have been receiving fines of £70 per day.

Cholsey Parish Council are now working with OCC to propose an alternative that would give those affected a chance of parking near their houses without regularly being fined.

The process will involve funding a new Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). A TRO is needed for any change to the system of parking restrictions, street markings and signage. It should be noted that existing double yellow lines, necessary for safety, will be retained and repainted as part of this work. The driveways of households with off-street parking will be protected. 

While problems are particularly acute along Station Road, this particular review/TRO is being extended to include all of Station Road, Papist Way (from Honey Lane down to Station Road), and the Wallingford Road as far as Goldfinch Lane.

As part of the TRO process, OCC will carry out a consultation of residents later in the year. We will be provided with a detailed plan of the proposals being made, and hope to share more information about the consultation process soon.

Some residents have asked whether a possible solution could involve a parking permit scheme. Having discussed this with OCC, we do not believe this is a suitable solution for Cholsey. Such a scheme would be expensive to administer and enforce; it would become the Parish Council’s responsibility to fund and carry out this enforcement. Such a scheme would also need to be more widespread, otherwise problems of commuter parking would simply be moved to other roads in the village. Permits would be an additional cost for residents.

The Parish Council will do our best to keep residents updated but please don’t hesitate to contact us in the meantime.