Edinburgh council have opened a formal consultation on parking in Edinburgh

The main proposals include:

• extending city centre parking controls to cover weekend (including Sundays) and into the evening potentially as late as 9:30 pm. This would cover single yellow lines, metred bays and residents parking bays.
• the roll out of shared use parking places for permit holders and pay and display customers
• the introduction of visitor permits in the city centre
• developing a parking pricing strategy

As a church we have written to the council outlining our objections to the proposals and have met with members of the committee.

We would encourage you to get in touch with your local councillor, particularly if they are on the committee which will consider the responses to the consultation:

• Lesley Hinds (Convener),
• Adam McVey (Vice-Convener),
• Nigel Bagshaw,
• Gavin Barrie,
• Chas Booth,
• Nick Cook,
• Robert Aldridge,
• Nick Gardner,
• Karen Doran,
• Bill Henderson,
• Allan Jackson,
• Karen Keil,
• Mark McInnes
• Ian Perry and
• Steve Cardownie

When we submitted our response we raised the following main issues and would encourage you to chose some of these to build a firm but polite and positive response:

• use of single yellow lines on Sundays and evening s for parking
• use of car sharing arrangements already in place
• Potential impact on our size and the impact this would have on city centre ministry
• The contribution that is made to the city centre economy on Sunday after the morning services.
• A delay to the start of Sunday restrictions until 1:30pm would mitigate this
• Evening parking restrictions threaten the wider gathered congregation in the city centre.

The council are likely to make a decision in March 2016.