Motorists take advantage of Kirkby Lonsdale signs mix up (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Motorists take advantage of Kirkby Lonsdale signs mix up

8:50am Friday 3rd July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

TRAFFIC wardens have been told they can’t police a busy South Lakeland street because of a mix-up over signs.

Exasperated shopkeepers in Kirkby Lonsdale discovered illegally-parked cars couldn’t be forced to move by district council staff - because county council workers have put up the wrong notices.

“One of the signs on Main Street says you can’t park Monday to Saturday, between 9am-6pm, while a bit further down the street another sign says the restrictions apply seven days a week and from 8am-6pm. Because they contradict each other parking restrictions can’t be enforced because motorists would have grounds to appeal so we’re left with vans parked all day, taking spaces that could be used by shoppers,” explained Allan Muirhead, who works part time in Main Street shop Lawrence Barrie.

“We’re all pretty annoyed about it. It’s a simple enough job to come out with a new sign and a screwdriver and change one of them yet nothing has been done. It’s bureaucracy, it’s red tape and it’s the problem you get with local government when one authority is responsible for half a service, and another one for the other half. This is what ratepayers have to put up with.”

A spokeswoman for South Lakeland District Council said staff had contacted highways officials at Cumbria County Council several times to no avail.

“While we are responsible for enforcing parking, the county council is responsible for erecting, removing and changing signs,” she said. “The signs are wrong but CCC needs to correct them before we can enforce the parking restrictions. Until the signs are erected we can’t enforce anything. It has been raised a few times (with the county council) and it needs sorting. At the moment, we’re stuck.”

When approached by the Gazette Cumbria County Council issued a statement saying: “we are investigating what the problem is and how this anomaly has arisen and if we find a problem the sign will be corrected as soon as possible”.

They would not comment on whether the matter had been brought to their attention before but confirmed that parking restrictions apply on the street seven days a week, from 8am-6pm.

In May Kirkby Lonsdale Town Council began proceedings to take control of services like car parks, tourist information and toilets after claiming that it could do the job better at local level.