Thousands of York residents are getting the chance to air their views on City of York Council's Resident's Priority Parking Scheme (Respark).

The popular scheme, which is provided for an annual fee and covers around 8,000 city residents, has operated in York for the last 15 years. It was devised in response to residents' concerns at the problem of people from outside the city using residential streets to park their vehicles - sometimes all day.

The scheme provides residents living and working within designated identified zones priority parking over non permit holders.

The council's parking services manager Bill Bird said, "Respark has grown significantly over the years. It has proven to be a successful and popular scheme and something of a model for other councils setting up similar operations in other parts of the country."

The details of how the scheme operates is now being reviewed by the council under the government's Best Value process. The survey is part of a broader review on the city's street environment.

Mr Bird said, "As a council serving the community it is essential that we provide a first class service for all our customers not just in the parking services section but throughout the authorities many departments.

"As part of providing Best Value it is important that we contact our customers and allow them to tell us how we are performing and what we can do to improve.

"With this in mind all the residents in the Respark scheme are to receive a short questionnaire which will ask key questions on how residents feel about the scheme and to indicate any particular problem areas."

Questionnaires will be delivered from Monday (June 17) and the closing date for replies is Friday, July 5.

Over the last four years important improvements have already been made to the service in response to customer suggestions. These have included: freephone helpline number linked to pagers issued to enforcement staff mobile patrols allowing speedy reaction to customer complaints, new improved permits designed to prevent fraudulent use a fully staffed Saturday reception for residents and visitors to collect permits and make general enquires increased patrol hours in Respark areas

Mr Bird said the questions in the survey would take no longer than ten minutes to complete and were being sent out with a freepost envelope. All responses will be treated in strict confidence and all information will be collated and produced in a written report.

Mr Bird said, "I would ask that as many residents as possible reply to the survey.

"My message to people is that it is your service and the more information we get the clearer picture we will have of how people feel about the way the scheme is being run."

As a follow up a number of residents from each zone will be invited to a focus group meeting to discuss the issues covered in the report and to agree an action plan on how to improve the service.

Mr Bird said, "Respark has not been reviewed since 1993 even though we have made some improvements since then. I am sure residents will have plenty of ideas of their own to help move the service forward.

"As a service provider we are dedicated to ensuring our customers get value for money and this customer consultation will help us to achieve that goal."

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