Petition started against parking changes in the centre of Alnwick

Laura Baile, the manager of Costa in Alnwick, with the parking petition. Picture by Jane Coltman

The county council is using £289,000 to tackle the immediate, high-priority parking issues flagged up in locally-developed plans for Alnwick, Berwick, Hexham and Morpeth.

These action plans were drawn up based on recommendations/conclusions of studies commissioned by the council.

In Alnwick, there is a target date of August for 80 long-stay spaces in Greenwell Road car park A to be converted to three-hour spaces, the four-hour bays in Greenwell Road car park D to also become three-hour spaces, and the time limits for the bays on Bondgate Within outside Costa to be reduced from two hours to 30 minutes.

But now, Laura Baile, Costa store manager, has launched a petition, which can be signed in various shops in the town.

She said that the changes do not consider the workers in Alnwick, as they will make it hard for staff to park, and ‘the high street stores are unhappy’.

The petition states: ‘The proposed parking changes will make parking for the workers in Alnwick impossible for the entirety of their shift.

‘We are concerned citizens who urge our council to consider our proposal to give the workers parking permits.’

A county council spokeswoman said: “We have worked closely with all stakeholders in Alnwick in developing plans to improve parking for the future, including consultation on the recent parking study.

“There has been agreement that it’s important to maximise the limited space in the town centre for use by shoppers, visitors and those who use services – thereby maximising the economic benefits. Unfortunately, when staff park there all day, or for long periods, these benefits cannot be realised.

“It was agreed through the recent work with the town that we should change some of the long-stay parking spaces to short stay, to strike a better balance between the needs of residents, employees and visitors.”

As part of the parking changes, there is an aim to increase off-street parking in Pottergate through the removal of double yellow lines by October.