Published: 26/11/2009 00:00 - Updated: 02/12/2009 16:12

Residents’ fury at no-go driveways

by HARRY GOTTSCHALK

PEOPLE living in a quiet Swadlincote street are struggling to access their own drives due to ʻbumper-to-bumperʼ parked cars left by town centre workers, according to three separate homeowners.

Dianne Lunn, Tracey Brooks, and Shirley Ordish, all live in Toulmin Drive and say parking in the cul de sac is making their lives a misery. They say the problem has got ‘worse and worse’ during the last year.

It comes after new two-hour limits were imposed in car parks in the town which were previously used by town centre workers.

All three women blame South Derbyshire District Council’s employees who work at the Civic Office, in nearby Civic Way. Mrs Ordish told the Mail that one employee swore at her when she tried to explain her problems.

She said: “I’m just getting so frustrated.

We tell people not to park here and we get a mouthful of abuse.

“Why don’t the council just send an email round to all the employees asking them to try and find somewhere else?

“They said ‘I pay my car and road tax so I can park wherever I want’. We even have to use each other’s drives sometimes.

We’ve not had a road sweeper down here in months.

Mrs Ordish said that recently her husband, who is unwell, could not pull on to his drive and had to leave his vehicle near the main road and walk to his house.

Mrs Brooks said that, last week, someone had parked directly in front of her driveway so she could not pull on to it.

Mrs Lunn said: “I even got visited by a policeman today who was investigating a damaged car. There are 21 cars parked there now and none of them belong to residents.

What if an ambulance or a fire engine needs to get through? “The problem is some of the car parks in the area have all changed their restrictions.

Sainsbury’s is now a restricted two hours.”

A council spokesman said: “A complaint has been made to our customer services department and it is being looked into.”