Since the Parish Plan was published in 2005 Dalston Parish Council has been searching for ideas to help the growing traffic and parking problem in the village of Dalston. Many different schemes have been considered. The whole matter of traffic and parking was reconsidered via a questionaire in 2007. The summary report can be read by clicking here. In summary, 78.5% of respondents felt that the Parish Council needs to take the initiative and provide additional off-road parking with 79% opting for some sort of parking down the Kingsway.

For the last 12 months members of the PC have been meeting with Cumbria County Council Highways to discuss traffic and parking issues in Dalston, including outside the schools. The PC has been told that Highways are now marginally closer to laying the appropriate traffic orders to permit time limited parking in The Square and a possible 20mph speed limit through the area, but this has been an on-going subject of many meetings and there is no guarantee that they will be put down in 2009. Without these traffic orders little can be done to improve the problems of parking around Dalston, and in particular, in The Square.

However, given the current state of the Kingsway, with significant damage to the verges nearly all the way down and the need to carry out repairs, together with the likelihood that Cumbria Highways will propose a reduction in the number of allowable parking spaces in The Square, the PC has commissioned a landscape design for an environmental improvement scheme. This proposal will only come before the Parish Council at its February meeting and may or may not be accepted.

The proposal provides for green grasscrete hardstanding parking for around 60 vehicles in two areas - one is a landscaped area to the left of the Kingsway which would have capacity for about 40 cars, and the second makes provision for just over 20 vehicles down the length of the Kingsway. The proposal provides for lots of planting, including a possible avenue of trees down the lenght of the road to the White Bridge. With the planting that is envisaged the vehicles would be well hidden by the planting.

The plans showing the project in detail will be available for inspection and comment at the Parish Meeting on Friday 6th February 2009, but they can be viewed from here by clicking the links below.