Parking

Dear resident,

Rest assured we are doing all we can to alleviate the parking in and around the college campus, but in most cases our hands are tied.

There are no restrictions in terms of parking on many of the streets in the immediate vicinity of the college, and as we have been told by the police, if a car is legally parked, has MOT, tax and insurance there is nothing they will do. I have even walked the area with members of the council’s parking enforcement team and they too confirmed that there was nothing that they could do given the fact that even though the roads were busy with parked cars on their visit, they were all legally and correctly parked. I would be happy and have suggested to the council to put parking restrictions on the surrounding roads, which will help to alleviate the problem, but that is not within my jurisdiction.

Where we have been alerted to a problem and we can identify a car by its college parking permit, we have located the staff/student and got them to move the car. This is only possible if they are part of the college community, what we have increasingly found is that many of the cars reported to us are not staff or students but shoppers, workers and visitors to Kendal who park near the college and then walk into town.

To help with the parking, we provide free parking on site for all staff and student cars, we promote non-car usage such as walking, and car sharing and provide free/subsidised transport (bus & train) to allow students to travel into college. In addition to this we consistently remind staff and students of the need to park with courtesy and to consider the needs of our neighbours. A perennial problem we face is that students who traditionally start off using the bus/train, will then as a rite of passage switch to using their car as soon as they pass their driving test.

The portakabins have remained on site a lot longer than planned and this has largely been caused by the delay in the Westmorland campus project. The purchase of the Westmorland was a large consideration and part of the solution to offset some of the strains currently being faced at our Milnthorpe Road site and we are now almost certain that we will be increasingly active within the Westmorland from September 2024 moving many students down to the town centre; this will help the parking around the college site.

Please pass on to residents that we remain vigilant and are actively trying to reduce the inconvenience where we can, given the limitations that we are working within. I remain confident that parking will improve following this academic year, supported by the removal of the portakabins and the siting of many students down to the Westmorland.

Aside from the above, I have exhausted the options available to the college.

If you need any further information, please email kelvin.nash@kendal.ac.uk.

Regards,

Kelvin Nash

Principal and CEO
Kendal College