In reply to Chris the Tall:
> Would it really be so terrible if all parking at Stanage was chargeable ? And the restrictions enforced? Maybe then people would actually park in the proper places and not on the verges.
Sorry to drag it back to the parking thing..
I see your point here, but yes - I do think it would be at least a little bit terrible. Charging (more) for parking would tend to encourage more people to park on the verges wouldn't it? Its already common (and quite annoying) to see folk parking on the verges around the toilet block and opposite the Plantation car park when there's plenty of space inside it.
Preventing that would probably call for lots of signage, yellow lines, more enforcement etc.. I'm not playing the "poor, persecuted motorist" here - I'm concerned about how that would change the whole feel of the place.
I also worry a little bit about the effect on people's attitude if there was a significant charge for the parking. I suspect it would, on some level, erode people's feeling of 'shared ownership' and perhaps tend to replace that with the feeling that its a commodity to be bought and sold. That would tend to increase littering, for example, but more importantly for me I think it would take away some of the magic of what is still (remarkably, given how busy it is) really quite a magical place.
Does that make sense or am I just being an old hippy here?