A RESIDENTS’ parking scheme in Frome that has divided opinion has been withdrawn by the town council.

The scheme at Weymouth Road, which included resident parking permits and on-street parking meters, was installed in 2022 as part of an 18-month trial following a wider consultation in 2018 to improve parking, traffic management and highway safety.

The trial received significant backlash from some residents on the nearby Trinity area who raised concerns the scheme merely forced cars to park in nearby unrestricted streets and simply moved the parking problem elsewhere rather than solving it.

Residents told the Frome Town Council how the displacement of parked cars limited free parking available for residents of Catherine Street, visitors to Victoria Park, the bowls club and the tennis club.

Residents of Somerset Road also said that the displacement impact has resulted in additional cars parking in the area, higher levels of congestion and increased concerns about pedestrian safety, particularly during school pick up and drop off times.

Somerset councillor Martin Dimery described the scheme as the “single most contentious issue” he has had to deal with as a councillor.

Frome Neighbourhood Parking Group reiterated their opposition to the scheme becoming permanent at a council meeting in July, which resulted in Frome Town Council clerk Paul Wynne writing to Somerset Council to ask about the potential for its amendment or withdrawal.

This led to the unprecedented step of Somerset Council allowing the decision on whether to make the scheme permanent to be made at local level by Frome Town Council.

At a meeting last night (October 2), Frome Town Council voted to withdraw the residents’ permit scheme in Weymouth Road.

Road markings installed as part of the scheme, such as additional double yellow lines and road markings, will remain.

A Frome Town Council spokesperson said: “Alternatives to scrapping the scheme were suggested by some Weymouth Road residents, along with concerns that a withdrawal of permits, without the removal of the yellow lines and other restrictions installed with them, would lead to a worse situation on Weymouth Road that it had before the consultation.

“Those against spoke about the displacement of traffic onto neighbouring streets and cited the unfairness of one road’s problem being solved, at the expense of others.

Councillors discussing the scheme at a meeting last night (October 2) Picture: Frome Town Council

“Many, including the assembled councillors, called for the town-wide parking and transport review that has been requested many times but not implemented to date.”

Councillor Mel Usher said: “Taking one street out of a scheme and giving them some preference is not going to work in any shape or form; you need a larger area than that.

“It occurs to me that every now and then you come across a problem to which there is no one answer.

“There’s no right or wrong answer to this and everybody who’s spoken has got positive points to make and all of them have got validity.

“I for one would prefer to be part of a council that says ‘ok, we didn’t get everything right’.

“We might not have made the right decision in the first place, but we’d like to put it right now, rather than hiding it.

“I’d prefer it if there was an answer this evening, and I’ll be voting for removal.”

At the meeting, cllr Nick Dove shared the frustrations of local businesses impacted by the scheme, repeated the need for a town-wide solution for traffic and parking and said he would vote against a scheme he judged “fundamentally unfair”.