Council to review parking in Berwick and that means no decision on changes in the meantime

The announcement was made as part of the local authority’s response to a petition that called for it to re-instate short term parking on Marygate.

But petition creator Louise Lough, who owns the Junk and Disorderly shop on Marygate, has said she believes the planned early 2025 date for the study is not the right time.

It was available for three months earlier this year and received 252 signatures.

Most of the parking bays were removed from Marygate in 2005 and short stay parking was most recently removed from the area following the expiry of an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) in January 2016 – which permitted parking for up to 20 minutes per day, no return within four hours.

Following the expiry of the Experimental TRO, and based on the feedback received, it was recommended that a permanent TRO was not introduced.

An update issued at a recent North Northumberland Local Area Committee meeting included the following: “Following a proposal to make the Castlegate overflow car park a permanent arrangement, Historic England have requested that the council undertake a new parking study so they can consider the proposal in the light of demand across the town

“This survey is anticipated to go ahead early 2025 and will look at all aspects of parking in the town centre. Therefore, no decisions on any changes to parking will be made in the meantime.

“The petition’s request to re-instate short term parking on Marygate will be considered in light of the study outcome once it’s received. We anticipate the results will be available around springtime.

“A detailed response to the petition will be provided once further information is available.

In response to this, Louise said: “If they do the study early in the year as planned, it wouldn’t be a true reflection of the parking picture in Berwick.”

She added that she hopes the council also looks at changing the disabled parking bays that are “straight in” and causing congestion, by drivers having to reverse out onto the other side of the road, to “slot in on an angle” so they can stay on their side of the road when reversing.