Shop owners hit out at new parking rules in Chesterfield

Angry West Bars traders, Bryn Allan, Kamil Ali, Naomi Cook and Nicholas Munro

New road markings have been added to the parking bays on West Bars which require drivers to park parallel to the kerb rather than diagonally.

Derbyshire County Council says this is because the area is not wide enough to allow diagonal parking without overhanging the bay.

But shop owners on West Bars have hit out at the changes saying they fear customers will go elsewhere.

An angry worker from one of the shops waves her ticket at the warden

Naomi Cook, manager at World of Icing, said: “Our business relies on people picking up their cakes and if people can’t do that then we have pretty much had it.”

“It is a concentrated attack. As soon as people started parking there the traffic wardens were like flies.”

Pictures captured by Derbyshire Times photographer Jason Chadwick show a traffic warden ticketing vehicles at the scene.

Naomi added: “We have got an employee who has been parking here for 14 years and has never had a ticket and then on Friday she got a ticket without warning.”

Paul Allan, owner of electronics store aGeek, said: “I took on the shop in 2008 and one of the reasons was because of the parking as customers could pick things up and drop things off.”

A spokesman for Derbyshire County Council said: “Nothing has changed. The parking bay in West Bars continues to provide waiting time limited to one hour and no return within two hours. Extra road markings have been added to the bay for clarity, which requires vehicles to park parallel to the kerb, not overhanging the bay. This is because the area is not wide enough to allow diagonal parking without overhanging the bay and causing an obstruction to the highway. Cars overhanging the bay will be liable for a penalty charge.”