Parking rules under review after businesses lose customers

CAR parking restrictions in an East Coast town are under review after it emerged drivers were going to extraordinary lengths to avoid being fined.

A maximum stay of two hours was introduced at a council car park in Newbegin, Hornsea, last August amid concerns there was not enough provision for short-stay visitors.

But businesses in the area complained they were losing customers and East Riding councillors yesterday ordered a report into the issue after being presented with a petition calling for the limit to be scrapped.

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A survey of local traders was carried out by Hornsea Museum, a charity that has been badly affected, which revealed that a woman in a hairdressers’ salon went out with rollers in her hair to move her car, and a customer of a chiropodist in Southgate was forced to cut short an appointment after having only one foot treated.

The museum, which houses a range of exhibitions across a large site, relies heavily on volunteers working three-hour shifts and they are having to leave their posts to move their cars – a particular inconvenience for disabled or elderly people.

The museum, which gathered 167 signatures on the petition, said: “We live with the worry that the time limit at the car park at the rear of the museum will have an effect on future income.

“We have worked incredibly hard to keep the museum going and have managed to maintain the museum shop’s income at the level of previous years despite the economic climate.

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“In the last few weeks of the past season, the reduction of the maximum parking duration from three to two hours showed signs of having a real effect.

“Several customers broke off their visit ‘to go and put more cash in the ticket machine’. Our members of staff tell them that this is not permissible, with the result that they rarely return to spend time browsing and spending in our shop.”

The petition raises a number of points, and said motorists were taking their custom elsewhere: “We find many visitors to the west of the town like to visit the museum, the church, and to find time for a snack or a meal.

“The two-hour limit means that their spend is being curtailed as they drive elsewhere.”

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Louise Blakeston, education officer and general administrator at the museum, said the restriction was having a negative effect on the whole town.

She said: “Spending in the shop is one of the main ways we keep the bills paid and it is also making a difference to the quality of the visitors’ experience.

People used to come here, go off for a coffee and do a bit of shopping, but in two hours you can’t really get around anything else at all. Now people come for two hours then leave; it isn’t good for Hornsea.”

She added: “We are quite a big site with different buildings and there’s an awful lot to see if you have the time.”

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The traders’ cause is being championed by Beverley and Holderness Tory MP Graham Stuart, who presented the petition to Coun Chris Matthews, East Riding Council’s portfolio holder for highways.

Mr Stuart said: “For local businesses and attractions in Hornsea, the new car parking rules will be a blow. No-one can get a real flavour of the Hornsea Museum and enjoy looking round the town with the prospect of their car being towed away in the back of their mind.

“Two hours is not enough to appreciate everything Hornsea has to offer.

“I congratulate Stuart Would, the curator of the museum, who organised the petition and collected the signatures. I hope the council will be able to come up with a solution that benefits the museum, the shops and local attractions.”

The report was ordered after the petition was discussed at the Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

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