Parking restrictions 'unreasonable' (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Parking restrictions 'unreasonable'

8:26am Friday 22nd February 2008 in News By Peggy Clatworthy

A TEWKESBURY couple who took over the running of a Church Street café just before Christmas say that unreasonable parking restrictions are keeping people away.

Julie and Andy Heath have been opening the Bay Tree café at weekends for past ten Saturdays and have noticed that people are worried about spending time there, in case they run out of parking time.

"I have had people ask me how long a meal will take and deciding that they cannot wait that long as they have only got a certain amount of parking time left, others are leaving their drinks and even meals because of it.

"They can't just sit back and enjoy themselves because they know that if they are just a minute late they could get a big parking fine.

"There needs to be some flexibility," she said.

She added that friends from out of town have told her that they would love to come and visit the café, but are reluctant to do so because of the parking situation.

The borough council took over responsibility for parking enforcement in November and since then there have been numerous complaints about over zealous traffic wardens.

The council's parking strategy is due for review at the end of March, and both the town council and local borough councils are carrying out surveys of people thoughts on the matter.