Councillors in Orkney have said they should have spotted a situation where two permit holder parking bays were due to be removed without their holders being directly spoken to.
The two parking bays are just metres away from the islands’ famous St Magnus Cathedral, on Broad Street, in the centre of Kirkwall.
One of the parking bays had been used by 85-year-old Hugh MacGillivray, for more than 30 years.
The other was being used for deliveries by ice cream shop and café The Daily Scoop.
The issue was discussed at a full meeting of the island areas’ councillors on Tuesday morning.
The permits were to be removed as part of an order coming into effect on the first of this month.
However, a debate around the use of the two spaces has arisen.
Other permit bays removed in 1999
Kirkwall East Councillor John Ross Scott brought the lack of direct consultation with the permit holders to the attention of the public and fellow councillors.
Last month, all eight of the town’s councillors submitted a Notice of Motion to Orkney Islands Council (OIC) asking for the situation to be re-appraised.
Tuesday morning’s meeting saw unanimous backing for the issue to go back to OIC’s development and infrastructure committee, meaning the situation remains so-far unresolved.
The options that will appear before the committee will include going back out to public consultation. The two permit holders will be able to continue using their spaces in the meantime.
Permit bays for other businesses in the area had been removed in 1999 and Orkney’s council does not provide on-street parking permits anywhere else having phased them out “in order to maximise the public parking spaces available”, according to the council’s own report.
‘Everything was done by the book’
The Kirkwall councillors gave their views on the matter and did not lay the blame at the doorstep of their council’s roads department as it was found that a public consultation had been properly advertised and carried out.
Councillor Scott said: “As you can see from the report everything was done by the book, but sadly at the heart of the action we, unfortunately, did not contact the two permit holders.
“Sometimes it’s worth putting up your hands and saying ‘if I missed something I got it wrong’, so if I did or if others did that’s to be noted.
“The issue is that direct contact was not made with the permit holders who only found out they were to lose out just over a month ago.”
Deputy leader of Orkney Islands Council Leslie Manson, who represents Kirkwall West and Orphir, explained that he was not keen to create a policy direction that would increase the number of dedicated parking spaces for either businesses or individual home owners in the area.
Instead, he said the debate was “not about policy but about politics. And politics is about people”.
“I think that’s where we’ve slipped up as a council. We haven’t paid enough attention to the needs and expectations of people.
“Eight Kirkwall councillors had to acknowledge that they hadn’t spotted this as the process proceeded.
“I don’t believe this is because there are eight, dim post-holders in Kirkwall. I think it’s because it’s very difficult in complex documents to spot changes if these changes aren’t highlighted.”
‘We should honour this 30-year-old arrangement’
Councillor Manson said that if councillors had been alerted to the changes which led to the permit holders losing their spaces they would have been able to raise it at a more appropriate time.
He also said that just because there is no necessity to contact one shop owner and one resident doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
The deputy leader gave his support for Mr Macgillvray to keep his permit as long as a car was in use but would not advocate the permit being attached to his address and used by a subsequent homeowner.
Councillor Manson said: “We should honor this 30-year-old arrangement this homeowner has enjoyed.
“The proprietors of The Daily Scoop bought the premises and developed the business in good faith believing that part of the package was that they had easy access to their premises. That may not be something that other businesses don’t enjoy but that was the deal at the time.”
