Bob Eaglesfield, of Stoke Fleming, writes:

I've just spent a few weeks in Queenstown, New Zealand. Queenstown is of a similar size to Dartmouth – like Dartmoth its local population is augmented by holiday makers and second home owners for much of the year. Like Dartmouth, its hub is on the waterfront, so land is only available on the 180 degrees away from the water. One would expect that like Dartmouth, it would have a serious parking problem. Amazingly it doesn't – all thanks to the way parking is managed.

On street parking is free, however the time available on town centre roads is strictly limited. Some critical areas have parking limited to 5 minutes. Roads nearest to the shops have a 15 minute limit, those a bit further away a 30 minute limit with 60 minute parking available a bit further away still. Some distance from the town centre, all day on street parking is free.

Those who work in the shops and businesses in town park on those streets and walk into and out of town, leaving the town centre parking available for their customers. Traffic wardens carry a pole with chalk at its end. They put a distinctive mark on the outside of the tyres of cars as they walk along a street. If when they return, for instance 15 minutes later, that mark is still visible on any car, then a ticket is issued. This effectively deters people from exceeding the clearly stated time limits. The result is that you can always find somewhere to park in Queenstown – if a space is not immediately obvious, someone will move very soon so that you can park. Parking time restrictions apply from 8am to 6pm, thereafter you can park for as long as you wish.

There is one off street lot where you can pay to park. This is uneconomical for staff requiring all day parking every day but is useful for an extended lunch or business meeting. As most people can park free there is never a problem finding space in the paid parking lot.

There is no park and ride facility in Queenstown. If Dartmouth were to adopt this plan an option might be to have a superb free service taking shop and business staff from and to their cars at the beginning and end of each day to obviate the walk Queenstown workers accept without quibble.