Success for Alec’s campaign against parking charges at Garforth train station
Finding a car parking space at Garforth train station is a daily difficultly for local rail users and Alec has this week slammed plans to charge for car parking as “the wrong way to solve it”.
Northern Rail, the private train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio who operate the Northern Rail franchise, is considering options to introduce charging for parking at the station.
In a letter to Northern Rail, Alec has objected to these plans asking Directors “in the strongest possible terms to avoid the implementation of car parking charges at Garforth station”.
Alec wrote: “As a local resident myself, I have been using Garforth train station for over a decade and throughout that time a recurrent problem has existed with car parking. The problem is two-fold; a) there is a lack of parking spaces at Garforth station and b) those already in situ are occupied by commuters who often travel quite some distance from outside the Garforth area; in peak times the car park is usually full by 7:30am.
“For my constituents who reside in Garforth, and who paid a premium on the price of their homes to live within reasonable access to the train station, a parking charge imposed by Northern Rail would penalise residents in my constituency for the actions of those who do not live in the area. Concurrently, parking charges would increase the number of commuters parking on residential roads around the station, an issue Leeds City Council is already unwilling to resolve.”
Recognising that securing a parking space is an issue at the station, Alec has proposed a pragmatic solution to alleviate this pressure and avoid the introduction of parking charges, he wrote: “In my opinion, Northern Rail has recognised an existing issue at Garforth train station but is looking at the wrong way to solve it. I have, however, previously brought your attention to a more pragmatic solution and would ask you to look comprehensively into the development of a new ‘hub station’ at Micklefield. There is sufficient land available at Micklefield to invest in a new ‘park and ride’ style car park which would significantly reduce the pressure of commuter parking at Garforth train station. From my own previous lobbying on this issue I know that Northern Rail are looking at this in detail but in my opinion this should be prioritised instead of options to introduce parking charges at Garforth”.
Read Alec’s full letter to Northern Rail here.
UPDATE: Victory for residents as Alec wins campaign against parking charges….
Thanks to the unprecedented support of local residents and rail users, Alec’s campaign against Northern Rail’s proposal to charge for parking at Garforth train station were squashed as Conservative Secretary of State, Patrick McLaughlin ruled out such plans.
Alec said: “Alongside other Conservative MPs in West Yorkshire I lobbied hard for these plans to be shelved. I’m grateful to residents for joining my campaign and to Patrick McLaughlin for standing up for hard-working people in my constituency by squashing these plans”.