FREE parking once a week in Porlock to encourage people to shop locally could cost the parish council up to £4,000 a year.

Council vice-chairman Cllr Stephen Colson said Somerset Council would want the lost income replaced, which was estimated at between £3,000 and £4,000 across 12 months.

A village car park working group chaired by Cllr Colson therefore recommended the free parking idea should not be taken up.

The working group was set up last November to look at how to increase and make best use of public car parking in Porlock, exploring the possible options and promotion and branding of car parks.

Cllr Colson said the unitary authority’s parking services team had agreed to add an extra free 15-minutes shoppers’ bay in Porlock’s Doverhay car park at no cost to the parish council.

A 'build out' pedestrian refuge near Porlock Pharmacy, in High Street, was not feasible, councillors have been told.
A 'build out' pedestrian refuge near Porlock Pharmacy, in High Street, was not feasible, councillors have been told. (Tindle News)

But a suggestion to add similar shoppers’ bays in the Central car park could not be pursued while the county authority was carrying out its review of car parks across Somerset.

Cllr Colson said the parish’s traffic and road safety working group had been told county highways would support widening the virtual footpath on Dunster Steep.

However, highways considered it was not feasible to create an informal pedestrian crossing in High Street, like the red paved areas in the centre of Minehead, for people with limited mobility to cross the road.

He said there were utilities issues in the road at the locations under consideration, such as near Porlock’s Abbeyfield home, and the need for road reinforcement due to the narrowness of the road which made it both impractical and costly.

Nor was it considered advisable to create ‘build outs’ at either end of the two on-street parking areas in the High Street, near the pharmacy and Spar shop.

The idea of an informal pedestrian cross in Porlock High Street, near the Abbeyfield home, has been dropped.
The idea of an informal pedestrian cross in Porlock High Street, near the Abbeyfield home, has been dropped. (Tindle News)

Cllr Colson said a ‘build out’, where a raised kerb protected each end of a parking bay as a refuge for pedestrians to make it easier to cross the road, would reduce the number of parking spaces and could also increase the time it took to park, leading to increased congestion.

He said consultation was underway on proposed yellow lines in Redway and ‘kerb ticks’ in High Street and a disabled parking bay and should be completed shortly.

A speed indicator device would be bought by the parish council for a speed awareness campaign once it had identified suitable locations in which to site it.

Clr Colson said all outstanding recommendations from the working group had been completed and a final report was to be presented to the annual parish meeting in the village hall on April 8.

He said it was hoped money from Somerset Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan could be obtained to install bus shelters in the High Street.

Unfortunately, however, a road sign at The Castle, which signposted the Central car park, could not be replaced as the contractor was unable to remove the concrete holding the original post and there was nowhere else to site it because of various services, such as electricity and telephone cables