Trinidad ExpressWoodbrook residents agree to parking permits...accept Mayor's plan to reduce blocked driveways
By Camille Bethel camille.bethel@trinidadexpress.com
Story Updated: Feb 17, 2011 at 11:45 PM ECT
Woodbrook residents were up in arms on Wednesday evening when Port of Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing proposed the introduction of permit stickers to allow them to park their vehicles outside their homes without fear of the wrecker.
However, after the permit sticker system was explained, residents agreed it would be the best solution to an ongoing problem in the neigbourhood, Lee Sing said yesterday.
"We have introduced the permit sticker to protect the Woodbrook residents from having their vehicles impounded if they park in their own driveway."
He said residents have the right to park in front their own driveways, but because there was no system in place before, there were a couple of times where their vehicles would have been impounded because they were parked in front of their driveways.
"The permit system is to avoid all of that."
Two stickers, he said, would be allotted to each household, which would have to be renewed annually.
"Woodbrook residents are only entitled to one driveway based on the regulations of the city; you, therefore, don't need more than two stickers per household.
"In fact, you only needed one because, really, you only have one driveway, and only one car could park in front of the driveway at a time."
He said if a household has more than two cars, then family members should park those cars in their yards.
Lee Sing said residents had an additional fear they would not be able to park on the road if they did not have a permit. However, he said they could park on the road if there is space.
"You are free to park anywhere on the road, governed by the normal road traffic regulations, but you can't park in front of the gateway if you don't have the sticker... We will not be held responsible for that," he said.
The mayor said the City Corporation had also proposed parking on side streets between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the best interest of the residents, but they felt it would have been an imposition on them.
"(They did not understand) that this was in their best interest, and so they did not agree with that, and so that proposal was not carried forward."
Lee Sing said at the end of the meeting, held at the St Crispin's Anglican Primary School on Ariapita Avenue, on Wednesday evening, everyone was in agreement with the permit stickers.