News
'Give us back our car park' say shoppers
Monday 23 June 2008
By Richard Catton ANGRY Ripon shoppers want to see an end to public parking spaces being taken up by contractors working on the nearby building site.
Residents say they are unable to park in the new spaces provided as part of the development West of Market Place because they are being used by sub-contractors working on the site.
Ripon resident, Kathy Cork said: "I appreciate they have to have somewhere to park but I think they should maybe share a parking space with somebody for one day.
"It's a public car park but they are taking up more than their fair share of spaces and there are signs everywhere saying the spaces are not for contractors."
Bernard Bateman, owner of Ripon Travel in Kirkgate, added: "Those 60 car parking spaces aren't for contractors - they are there for people to come into Ripon and do their shopping - it's time the contractors made moves to stop it."
Most of the vans at the centre of the row belong to workers who are sub-contracted by Maple Grove, the company building the Booths supermarket.
A four-hour parking limit is not deterring the sub-contracters who drive the vans away at lunchtime then return for a further four hours in the afternoon.
Neil Ward, Maple Grove's development manager, said he was aware of the complaints from the public.
"The problem is, is that it's a public car park and it's not our staff parking there, it's the sub-contractors on the site. If we complain to them they point out it's a public car park.
"We provide these spaces as public spaces but the policing is down to the borough council. It's almost sort of perverse in a way because if it was our car park we could say don't park there."
Peter Hixon is a manager at Historic Property Restoration, one of the firms which uses the parking spaces. A Ripon resident himself, he says he can understand the frustration but says he and others have no alternative.
"Ripon is limited when it comes to parking and I can't see any way round it," he said.
"We are taking up spaces for visitors to Ripon and being from Ripon myself I understand the problem.
"A lot of these lads are driving vans with maybe £8,000 of tools in the back so we can't be leaving them parked miles away."
Mr Hixon said using the spaces behind Philip Hall is costing his company hundreds in parking fines.
"We had five parking tickets last week. If someone could come up with a solution then we would be very interested because this is costing us a fortune."
