Wirral coastal parking ban will hit local walkers - say residents

Restrictions are set to be introduced after a van hire firm parked vehicles at the waterfront

A ban on overnight waterfront parking in part of Wirral will penalise people who enjoy late night or early morning coastal walks, residents have said.

New rules, which come into force next week in New Brighton, will ban cars from parking on Coastal Drive or Kings Parade between 23:00 and 06:00.

Wirral Council said the "experimental" order would be assessed.

Sean Martin, chair of New Brighton Coastal Community Team, said residents and visitors would be impacted.

"We have businesses down that end that regularly open one am or two am in the morning at the weekends and this will mean that their customers cannot even park there," he said.

"We have dog walkers that go out early in the morning and late in the evening, we have fishermen that park up there in the early hours.

"The residents and visitors to New Brighton have been impacted on."

'Temporary order'

Adam Crouch from Wallasey Beach Club, a not-for-profit water sports community, said he wanted the council to reconsider the traffic order.

"I think they need to reconsider the traffic order and maybe just put a couple of hours restriction through the middle of the night that would solve the solution maybe for the commercial vehicles," he said.

"I can't see why or how they can ban local residents and people travelling to the area for water sports through the night."

The overnight parking ban is being introduced by the council on 17 April after a van hire firm was criticised for leaving dozens of its vehicles on the road.

West Wallasey Car and Van Hire apologised for parking up to 100 vehicles in New Brighton and Wallasey.

It angered residents who said it had caused a blight on the town and left them struggling to park.

The company has since agreed a lease with the council to use the site of Wallasey's former gas works off Dock Road in Seacombe for parking.

A spokesman for Wirral Council said the "experimental traffic order" was a "temporary" parking order "to assess whether this approach can be effective, and follows requests that such a measure be put in place to ensures sufficient parking spaces are available to members of the community and visitors".

"Throughout the period the order is in place people will be able to comment on the measure and these responses will be used when councillors review the order and decide whether or not to keep the parking restriction, or try alternative measures in future," he said.