A business selling Christmas trees is to set up on St Peter’s Square tomorrow in a bid to stop it being used as a free car park.
Drivers have been using the new public space in front of St Peter’s Church off Richmond Place as free parking for the North Laine for the last few months.
Now, Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns the square, has put up No Parking signs and is looking into ways of enforcing this and blocking access.
But in the meantime, it hopes that by allowing the tree sales business to set up shop there, fewer cars will be able to access the square.
A council spokesman said: “We’ve put No Parking signs up in the area near St Peter’s Church to discourage drivers from parking their vehicles there.
“We have also given permission for a Christmas tree sales business to set up on the area in question. That will start on Thursday and will greatly reduce the number of vehicles able to pull up there.
“In the meantime, our parks and legal teams are currently assessing the best long-term solutions for stopping drivers parking there.
“Options under consideration include a combination of enforcement action and blocking access.”
The square was opened in autumn 2020, as part of the reworking of road and green space through Valley Gardens. The space was previously used as a car park for the church, but this has moved to the northern side of the building.
The square has been used to host Brighton Fringe events, and last year the Brighton Christmas Festival market was held there.
It’s believed the parking started after a mobile unit used by the NHS for lung health checks set up opposite the square last month.
However once drivers saw it being used by one or two cars, more started to take advantage. After Brighton and Hove News highlighted the issue earlier this month, cars began to line every side of the square.
This week, the city council confirmed its name is St Peter’s Square.
It’s beyond belief that the council are unable to fine the drivers doing this
Just park on the pavement. Apparently you can’t get a ticket for that either. Thank me later.
Great way of getting your paint scratched by pushchairs and wheelchairs squeezing through, thank me later
Have you any knowledge of the highway code?
The Council are determined to prevent Christmas shoppers coming to Brighton to spend their money and will Grinch anything they can, particularly in a cost of living crisis.
This space isn’t a car park though.
There isn’t a designated entrance and you have to drive across the pavement to access it.
That’s all very well but this isnt a carpark… Self entitlement by a few very selfish people isn’t a bell weather for a councils running of the cities parking
I cycle past this every day on the bike lane, and so I pass the entrance / exit to it. I have never seen a No Parking sign up. You’d have thought a big, bold “No Parking” sign at the entrance would help things… I’ve never seen one. Have the Council been putting signs up only for drivers to tear them down? I don’t know. There need to be big, obvious signs and they need to be affixed.
They were there yesterday
This gets more ridiculous as time goes on. The site has just one potential vehicle access point – how hard is it to put a gate there?
Instead of this *tried and tested* method of securing space, some non-enforceable No Parking signs have joined the no skating or rollerblading signs to give a general air of prohibition, whilst a Christmas tree company will be able to use the space as a customer car park, with multiple vehicle crossings (and probably overspill parking) on the cycle track.
Under our new council, the vision for Valley Gardens is fading fast…
Let me get that straight, the place is empty and not in use at the moment. So why can’t drivers park their vehicles so they can shop around for Christmas. Brighton council need to look in the mirror and see the people who elected you , now you are making their life hell. Leave the drivers alone and concentrate on fixing the roads and more cheap parking.
It’s not a car park, there are plenty of car parks in Brighton.
drivers have to drive over a pavement and cycle lane to access the space. It’s really not safe. God knows why it’s taking so long to sort out. Surely a few PCNs would get the message across.
The area is a public square which used to be filled with skaters and rollerbladers. now it’s deserted and filled with cars, a disgusting use of space.
‘Hopes’
If only the council could actually do something about it
The best use for St Peter’s Square, to stop it being a free parking space is the utilisation of the space with perhaps food stalls, encourage local street business, like the coffee van that’s further up the from the square,so much potential if only the council can support the idea.
They do support the idea, for a food and craft makers market but there were no takers
Imagine being upset that people are parking for “free” the BHCC never seases to amaze
Don’t much care if they are parking for free or paying – the main bone is that they are parking there at all. When the new St Peters Square was created it was supposed to be public space – a rare flat area for informal recreation and occasional events.
In the beginning it was great – with a good amount of seating if was quickly adopted by rollerbladers and skaters and was a safe and highly visible space much used by women and girls – just the sort of demographic the council should be aiming at. For some reason this positive and inclusive activity has been banned and all of the seating removed. Without a function it has become marginal space and it’s no surprise that car ppl have taken it over.
Bring back the seating and unban the rollerbladers. Parks for people.
Seating wasnt removed it was stolen, so its never been replaced . Residents complained about the skateboarding noise so that was stopped
Well that’s miserable. It’s not really a residential area. At least two lanes of traffic plus pavement plus several stories separate the few dwellings from the square.
Same old thing of people living in the city centre wanting peace and tranquility, and the quality and purpose of our public realm being decided by older people who drive past and stay in their homes.
Young people are really poorly served in this city. Whenever a *public* space becomes animated by activities of youth up go the signs banning it.
No fun.
Could understand if there was conflict with other activities, but this is a purpose built informal recreation space where informal recreation has been banned.
Ridiculous.
Why are some people outraged at this, demanding the Council take action? The Council over charge for paid parking everywhere. Either that or it’s resident parking only. And now you want them to put parking meters on this St Peters square, or ban the free parking altogether? You don’t much care for people’s liberty do you. Just call in the council, to make money for nothing, and squeeze the motorist even more.
The square was once bustling with skaters and rollerbladers, as well as people doing music and generally just being a nice use of community space. Now it’s a depressing non-space filled with the cars left by entitled motorists.
Get real.