The Parish Council is currently attempting to reduce the need for on-street parking in Pensford by creating a village car park. A presentation was made to villagers by Councillor Steve Grimes at the annual parish meeting held on 12th May 2025, and the text of this is reproduced below.
“One of the most difficult problems to solve in Pensford is the lack of adequate car parking for residents, visitors and businesses. For as long as most of us can remember, this has been a serious problem, things are getting worse and the Parish Council are looking for a solution.
When the Parish Council formulated our Neighbourhood Plan covering the period 2016 – 2035 the democratic choice of a large number of residents in the official consultation process as confirmed by a public referendum was to provide more car parking spaces in the parish.
• Our village roads are very narrow and mostly have no pavements.
• Lack of parking space is particularly acute in Church Street, High Street and the residential part of Publow Lane.
• New parking restrictions and new double yellow lines are further prohibiting parking in some spots.
• Lack of parking spaces discourages motorists from stopping to shop at our village Post Office and Stores
• Demand for parking continues to grow.
Since the Parish Council adopted the Neighbourhood Plan, a top priority and long-term aim has been to explore ways of providing additional parking in Pensford to benefit the community.
Around 2 years ago, the Parish Council established a working group tasked with identifying solutions to the most difficult problems in our parish. It has looked at problems ranging from lack of safe footpaths to school and the lack of a village car park.
The Parish Council carefully considered using known areas of open land such as the Memorial Hall Playing fields and the Tanyard for car parking but rejected both as unworkable. The owner of the Tanyard is not likely to cooperate, even if the Parish had money to purchase it, which we do not, and legal constraints restrict use of the playing fields to sports, social and recreational purposes, which prohibits a public car park. Although the Parish Council has owned the plot of land in Publow Lane known as the Allotment Gardens since 1920, it did not have space for car parking. There had been no significant changes to the Allotment Gardens for over 100 years and they were full up with allotments. There was no other identifiable land available in Pensford, for a car park even if we could afford to buy it. Therefore, up until 2024, all efforts to find space for a village car park were unsuccessful.
In October last year, the Parish Council received an unexpected offer from parishioners to donate a plot of land adjacent to the Allotment Gardens to the Parish free of charge. This land would significantly expand the total area owned by the Parish Council to the space behind the George and Dragon. The current owner would retain the land beyond the George & Dragon running behind the residential houses in High Street, so this will not be included.
The offer is conditional on the new plot being used (exclusively) as allotments, the Parish Council being responsible for legal costs, and on our agreeing to divert a public footpath through the Allotment Gardens.
Once the Parish Council becomes the legal owner of the new land, we will be able to re-locate some of the allotments onto the new plot and use the vacated part of our existing Allotment Gardens for car parking. This provides a unique opportunity to achieve our key objective of providing a village car park.
As far as I know, the Parish has never taken on such a complex project but we owe it to our parishioners to try to provide more parking spaces, which parish residents increasingly need.
The Parish is unlikely to get another opportunity like this, nor are we aware of any other suitable plot of land in Pensford available to purchase (even if we had sufficient money) so we cannot let the opportunity pass.
The Parish Council consulted Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Public Rights of Way Officers who were generally supportive and saw no technical reason why the footpath diversion would not receive approval.
We know it will not be easy, but it is our duty to try. We have money available, which has been lying dormant and depreciating for years, which we can use only for capital projects. Therefore, the Parish Council voted to proceed with this project and agreed to submit an application to divert the footpath.
The Working Group has done a feasibility study and Paul Baxter has calculated that the area of land offered is approximately 1161 square metres, which could accommodate up to 32 car parking spaces.
The total cost of the footpath application is £4349.
Paul May our Ward Councillor is supporting the project and is donating £2500 from his Ward Councillors Empowerment Fund.
Once the Parish Council receives agreement to divert the footpath and it has acquired legal ownership of the new land, we intend to clear the donated land and make it fit for use as allotments. It is in poor condition now but as we do not yet own it, we cannot do any work to improve it until we do. We will then apply for official permission to move some of the allotment area. This would effectively be a land swap. The Parish Council would still provide exactly the same area of land for allotments as before and we would use the area vacated to accommodate the car park. We believe we can achieve this without too much disturbance to existing allotment holders.
The Parish Council will balance the interests of all sections of the community. We will listen to concerns from allotment holders and nearby residents, but we also have a responsibility to listen to the wider community who consistently tell us they need more parking spaces. The Parish Council wants to work with plot holders and residents to ease any concerns. Paul Baxter has already carried out consultations with nearby residents, William Tantam has already consulted with the allotment holders, and we have had meetings with those directly affected. There will be further consultations as things progress.
The Working Group will not decide on the precise position for the car parking area until after further consultations have taken place and at this stage, the Parish Council has made no decisions on how the car park would operate. For example, if it would be open to all, or just for residents with permits. The Parish Council will consult parishioners regarding the precise method of operation at a later stage. For example; whether it should be fully open to the public or just open to parish residents with permits issued, the likely volume of traffic and turnover of cars, the potential security issues for neighbouring properties and the possibility of installing movement activated security lighting in the car park area.
With regard to wildlife protection, we know there is a badger set on the donated land. The Parish Council intends to protect the set and we will take expert advice on this at the appropriate time.
We are taking the project a stage at a time. Stage 1 is to divert the footpath and this is the only change we are pursuing at present. We have made no firm decisions on stage 2 (the car park) and we will only progress to this after we have successfully completed stage 1.
Each stage will take time to complete – for example, stage 1 is likely to take nearly a year or could be longer.
There are six stages involved:
1. Apply to BANES for permission to divert the footpath.
2. If successful, we divert the footpath and close the existing footpath.
3. We then transfer the donated land into Parish Council ownership.
4. Once we legally own the plot, we make it fit to use as allotments.
5. We then apply to the Department for Communities and Local Government for change of use.
6. Once approved, we may need to apply to BANES for planning approval.
In summary; the donated plot will provide the parish with a substantial area of new land at zero cost, and if we can complete this project successfully, the Parish will achieve a key objective of the Neighbourhood Plan which is to provide parking spaces to benefit the wider community, which we cannot achieve in any other way”.