Portsmouth City Council extends parking permits for D-Day event

Portsmouth City Council is offering extra free parking to Southsea residents and businesses to help minimise the inconvenience of road closures around the national D-Day commemoration event.

As part of security measures full road closures are being brought into place around Southsea Common with vehicle access to roads in the surrounding areas restricted to residents and businesses.

The measures are being put in place at the request of the police to keep visitors and the local community safe around the national commemoration event on 5 June.

The first restrictions will come into effect from 8am on Tuesday 4 June and roads will be reopened when it is safe to do so after the national event on 5 June.

The security measures will have an impact on parking in the area and the council is trying to minimise the inconvenience caused to residents and businesses.

The majority of the road closures are in the council’s KC parking zone. To help reduce the impact on parking in this area, anyone with a KC zone permit will be allowed to park for free in the council’s pay-and-display car parks and on-street pay-and-display areas apart from the coach bays on Museum Road.

The same free parking will be offered to anyone with a parking permit for car parks or pay-and-display bays that have been closed.

The council is delivering information to around 13,000 homes and businesses in the area to make sure the local community is aware what is happening.

Cllr Steve Pitt, Deputy Leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: “The city is hosting a major event with 14 world leaders attending so there were always going to be security measures. The government and police have set out what restrictions they want in place and now we are trying to deliver this while minimising the impact on residents. We know this will disrupt people’s lives but hopefully doing things like extending the use of parking permits to a wider area can help reduce the inconvenience.”

The police have visited homes and businesses in the area to discuss the arrangements and identify any specific access needs people have in order to make special arrangements where needed.

Full details of restrictions can be found at www.portsmouth.gov.uk/d-day75