UDC hosts off-airport parking summit
A high-level summit was held last week (2 November) to work through some of the problems around off-airport parking that are affecting the lives of residents in neighbouring villages to Stansted Airport.
The forum-type event was facilitated by Uttlesford District Council and brought together representatives from key partners including Essex Police, Essex Highways, Trading Standards, North Essex Parking Partnership, a representative of our Member of Parliament, the parishes most affected, and the airport, as well as a number of senior officers from the council.
The purpose was to discuss the nature and scale of the air-airport parking problems, the enforcement and regulatory tools available across agencies to tackle the problems, and to talk about options to resolve them.
Cllr Neil Hargreaves, Deputy Leader of the council, who hosted the meeting, said: "We know off-airport parking is a massive priority for many of our residents living near the airport. The district council takes this very seriously and has recently taken enforcement action to stop the use of unauthorised parking lots. The purpose of the summit, which was hugely valuable in bringing together so many key partners, was to share initial thoughts on tackling the problems.
"This a long-running and complex set of issues and there is no magic solution - if you crack down on one aspect, the problem pops up elsewhere. But I'm hopeful we and the parishes can work with the various agencies to make some improvement in the situation for our residents."
7 November 2023