Mum makes plea for more parent & child parking spaces in Alnwick

Sam Frost expressed her frustrations about the current shortage of suitable spaces at a meeting of Alnwick Town Council.

She said: “It’s not something I’d really thought about until I recently became a mum but there is nowhere in the town centre where you can park that’s wide enough that you can actually open your car door to get your child in and out in a car seat.”

Morrisons car park does have parent and child spaces but only for customers using the store.

Sam said: “It came to a head for me this week when I tried to park in a particular spot (on Fenkle Street) where there was no-one next to me or next to a disabled bay where there is extra space.

“When I returned, a vehicle had occupied the space and I had to leave the child on the pavement while I pulled the car out into the road to then have to put the child in. Obviously, that wasn’t great for me, the child or the other drivers on the street.

“For parents with children, it’s not necessarily that they want to be parked right outside the shops. It’s the width of the spaces that’s the issue.”

Mayor Lynda Wearn said the issue had not been raised in a recent car parking study .

Coun Gordon Castle, Alnwick county councillor, said it was the first time he had heard the issue raised but felt that it was a perfectly reasonable point.

He added: “Anything that reduces the net number of town centre parking spaces will not be easily accommodated, although that doesn’t mean to say we can’t do it.”

Coun Alan Symmonds said: “A greater priority is inclusivity and this is a valid point. You can’t even open your door sometimes. There was one occasion when I had a convertible that I had to put the roof down and climb over!”

“An analysis of what we need to do about that should be undertaken and I think that adequate provision should be made for parents with children who need a wider exit from the car.”

He also lamented the ‘pitiful’ number of disabled bays in the town centre.