HEXHAM Town Council is being urged to scrap its controversial free parking scheme without delay.

Hundreds of people, including solicitors, estate agents, traders and office workers have signed an online petition demanding an immediate return to the paid for permit parking scheme which served the town well for decades.

The petition was instigated by estate and land agents Young RPS, which has offices in Priestpopple.

The petition reads: “Since free parking has been introduced in Hexham with limited all day spaces, chaos has been caused for those people working in Hexham.

“Employees are having to move their cars several time each day, resulting in loss of productivity for local businesses and parking fines for staff.

“Many people who do not work within the town are abusing the all-day free parking system, taking up valuable all day spaces for those people who work in Hexham.

“We demand that the council reverts to the old system of permit parking which worked extremely well for many years.”

While brought in with the best of intentions, the free parking scheme has proved unworkable for many people, with several attempts at tinkering with it only exacerbating the situation.

Virtually all the few remaining all-day free parking spaces in the main Wentworth car park are occupied before 8.30am, with the introduction of two-hour and four-hour bays causing much confusion, especially among the tourists they were designed to help.

There is now a mad dash at 1pm – when people have to move their cars from the blue four hour bays – to find increasingly scarce alternative parking spots.

The situation will only get worse in the run-up to Christmas, with major roadworks in and around the Loosing Hill car park in preparation for it becoming the town‘s bus station and ongoing building work at the M&S car park in Maidens Walk severely restricting options for parkers.

People who signed the petition roundly condemned the town council for changing the previous parking system, when there was no clear demand for it.

Sarah Robinson-Gay, who has a business in Market Street, said: “Making it difficult to run businesses in Hexham will lead to businesses going elsewhere, which it turn will be highly detrimental to the future of this town.

“Parking needs to work for all users and yes, there is parking at Tyne Green but it is not lit nor easily accessible.

“Our town needs to be accessible and with the prospect of our parking provision reducing again with the development at Loosing Hill, this situation needs to be re-dressed before more damage is done to the economics of the town.

“Painting more lines will not resolve this.”

Solicitor Richard Nelson wrote: “So long as there is a shortage of parking in Hexham, it’s manifestly unfair for some people to always be able to park all day for free, whilst others can’t park at all.”

Neil Foster, of Hexham estate agent Foster Maddison added: “The current system is a shambles. Loosing Hill is now half empty because of the short time restriction (presumably a cynical move by the council to claim it is under utilised in order to make way for the bus station!).

“I am not convinced Hexham has suddenly spawned enough commuters to fill the Wentworth spaces.

“The lack of all-day parking in the town will gradually push employers to relocate and further degrade the already abysmal retail offering in the town centre.”

Wark‘s Nicola Weatherley commented: “It’s a nightmare and makes juggling childcare and employment even harder.

“The council should support our rural community not exclude them!”

Despite the scores of complaints, town mayor Coun. Trevor Cessford said this week it was unlikely there would be further changes to the parking regime in the immediate future.

He said: “We have done a lot of work on parking in deciding what is best for the town, and there will be no knee jerk reaction to this petition.

“I know there are problems for some people who work in the town, but you cannot make changes on a whim.“

He accepted the loss of spaces at Loosing Hill and Maidens Walk was a problem, and said that discussions were taking place with the county council to address the problem.

He said: “I can understand the point of view of people who work in the town, but we have to take into account everyone - residents, traders, business people and the rest,

“I don‘t think we are looking at something which cannot be fixed.”