St. John's lifts controversial winter parking ban

With the arrival at least officially of spring, a controversial overnight winter parking ban in downtown St. John's has been lifted.

Coun. Debbie Hanlon announced the decision at the city's council meeting on Monday.

She said the forecasted weather for the coming week made the city comfortable ending the ban for the season.

The ban had prohibited parking on parts of Duckworth, Water, Prescott, andWaldegrave Streets from 3:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.

The ban started in January and quickly drew the ire of some downtown workers who said the policy interfered with their work schedules. It also upset people who left their vehicledowntown overnight after drinking at local bars and restaurants rather than drivewhile impaired.

City waiting on evaluations

Hanlon said the city is still waiting for evaluations on the effectiveness of the winter parking ban trial.

"Will it be in this form? It's hard to say ... we'll wait for the evaluations to be in," she said.

She said business owners downtown were generally pleased with the snow clearing that was done as a result of the ban and that the city tried to spread the word as best it could during the pilot program.

"We want people to enjoy downtown, we didn't want anybody's car getting towed."

Part of the review for next year will involve looking at ways to help acknowledge the concerns of downtown workers and citizens up in arms about the ban, said Hanlon.