Town car parking conference
Last updated 19:40, Thursday, 08 May 2008
PARKING problems in Maryport were due to be highlighted at a conference yesterday.
The conference was called by Maryport Town Council in response to an escalating problem with parking in the town centre and on the estates.
It was to involve police, county, district and town council representatives, housing agencies, highway services engineers and bus company representatives.
Maryport and Allerdale councillor, Carni McCarron-Holmes asked for the conference after bus company, Stagecoach, said it was withdrawing some services because its buses could not negotiate parked cars.
Under imminent threat is the No 30 service on Ewanrigg where the bus cannot pass cars on Grasmere Avenue to Brooklands Avenue and Ellenborough Road.
Councillor McCarron-Holmes said the bus service was just one of many problems in a situation that was becoming increasingly serious.
“If a bus can’t get through, what chance has a fire engine or an ambulance?” she asked.
“Maryport is going to be gridlocked and it is not just in the main street.
“Every one of us will be able to pinpoint a place where parking is causing problems - roads such as Ewanrigg Road where parked cars have increased by so much because of the doctors’ surgery and hospital.”
She said that the traffic wardens were not in the right places.
She said: “They concentrate on the town centre during the day but it is in the evenings, when there is nobody around, that vehicles pack on yellow lines and block vision at intersections.”
Coun McCarron-Holmes hoped that yesterday’s conference would provide some answers.
“It is a chance for all of us to get together and discuss it,” she said.
The conference was being held at Maryport Town Hall.
