Mum's campaign for parent-and-child parking spaces

Emily Hutson said she often struggled to find a parking space wide enough to get her baby daughter out of their vehicle

A young mum is leading a campaign to get parent and child spaces in a town's car parks.

Emily Hutson, from Orleton near Ludlow, said she travelled into the Shropshire town every week but sometimes had to search a number of car parks for a space wide enough to get her daughter safely out of their vehicle.

Ms Hutson has started a petition calling on Shropshire Council to bring in wider spaces.

Rob Wilson, the councillor responsible for transport, has promised to look at the issue, but warned the authority's financial position made changes difficult.

Ms Hutson said other mothers were "quite surprised" at the lack of parent and child spaces in the town's council car parks.

Her solution has been to arrive early and try to get a car parking space at the end of a row, with options becoming more limited as the day progresses.

"I think it's an issue that's overlooked and not really thought about if you haven't got children," she said.

Her suggestion is that Shropshire Council creates between four and six wider spaces for parents with small children, per council car park.

She said: "They might lose one or two spaces, but they're going to have parents coming to town knowing 'I can park safely'."

Beverley Waite said an increase in parking charges could pay for the changes

Beverley Waite, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Ludlow East, has supported Ms Hutson's campaign and admitted she had not thought about parent and child spaces before.

But she said: "Even I, as a driver, struggle to get in and out of spaces."

Ms Waite said "cars are so much larger than they were" and brought up the issue at a recent council meeting.

In response, Mr Wilson said as a father of young children himself, he was aware of the issue and of increasing car sizes, but there was "no simple solution".

He said: "There would be a revenue implication for the council, and in the current financial situation this would be very difficult to resolve."

Shropshire Council is seeking to make more savings to avoid having to effectively declare itself bankrupt and last month declared a "financial emergency".

Ms Waite said she was well aware of the authority's fragile situation, but proposed paying for the changes with a 5p increase in parking fees in the town.

Mr Wilson has promised to put her in touch with the relevant council officers and Ms Waite said if people like Ms Hutson kept pushing, the council would "have to listen".