People now have more time to respond to a survey on residential parking schemes in Bury St Edmunds after less than 400 responses were received.

The consultation about the 12 parking zones was due to close on March 11, but it has been put back to Friday, April 22.

As part of the residential parking scheme review, 2020 Consultancy has created a series of options, which are based upon people's earlier feedback and designed to help improve their parking needs.

Oversubscription of permits is a problem for many of the town's parking schemes, but West Suffolk Council said it was unable to refuse genuine permit applications.

As of Monday, there were 363 survey responses, a West Suffolk Council spokesperson said.

The ideas in the survey include:

  • Allowing permit holders to use West Suffolk car parks overnight (between 6pm and 8am) at no extra charge;
  • Extending the operating times of all permit schemes from 8am to 8pm (these currently vary with some operating from 10am to 4pm and some 8am to 6pm) and bring in more evening enforcement;
  • Integrating permit zones where one is heavily subscribed and another less so.

A council spokesperson said: “We would urge all residents living in the residential parking zones to have a look at the proposals and have their say."

Find the survey here.