Council accused of being unhelpful

12:26pm Monday 12th May 2008

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A TEWKESBURY resident has slammed the borough council over its unhelpful attitude towards her house move.

Amy Bolton planned to move out of her house at the top of the High Street, using a car and horse trailer.

She realised that this could cause parking problems and turned to the borough council for help and advice.

She asked if a small area could be coned off for her as the vehicle would be coming and going for about two hours They would not do so, and said she did not have the authority to do so herself and faced a fine of £70 if she double parked She was offered a £10 parking dispensation that would allow her to park there all day, despite the 45-minute limit on parking in the area.

"I explained that the 45 minute parking restriction was not the issue, I needed a space to come back to in order to move more of my belongings, but did not want to double park."

Asked what she was supposed to do she was told they did not know' "I thought I was doing the right thing by calling the council by they were not interested in helping me," she said.

Traffic manager John Horsey said that the situation was difficult.

He explained that furniture removal vans are allowed to park in restricted areas whilst loading and unloading, provided it is safe for them to do so, but that this move was being done with a private car and trailer.

He added that it would have been possible for Miss Bolton to take out a dispensation for the day for two vehicles.

One could then have been used for the move, and the other used to reserve the parking space whilst it was away.