Local residents are getting caught out by parking on London Road, on the stretch outside Tesco Express.
Initial plans were for Tesco's loading bay to be on Clifton Street, but probably as a result of objections from local residents, when Middlemede Properties Ltd submitted their revised planning application in July it stated that no HGV's would use Clifton Street. Instead the application featured a 25m loading bay on London Road.
Use of the loading bay is restricted to 7am-10am and 3pm-7pm which means parking is only allowed outside of these hours, with waiting limited to one hour. Two signs are placed either end of the loading bay, as above, but many local residents haven't noted the change and as a result parking tickets have regularly been issued on this stretch of the high street since the store opened on February 5th.
A couple of our members contacted us recently to say they had received tickets for parking during the restricted hours:
Sally Hirst said "Please don’t get caught as I did, the traffic warden is ready and waiting as a whole row of us were given penalties. Outside the Tesco Express I received a parking ticket because of the change from general restricted to loading bay at 3pm. I have contacted Cheshire East yesterday to challenge the ticket.
"Only on reading the penalty charge did I realise that this area became a loading bay. The signs indicating this change look no different to the others around the village other than being slightly longer. Only when close up are you aware of the additional restrictions. No other information has been erected regarding change of use and no letters have been painted on the road as is usual with a permanent loading area saying ‘LOADING BAY’.
"I believed I was correctly parked and had endeavoured to return to my car within one hour. I am now informing all I meet of the change, not one person has said they knew of the restrictions when I have spoken to them."
Ricky Lee added "My wife didn’t know the bays changed to loading bay from 3pm either and also received a ticket a few weeks ago, it seems the traffic warden knew the time of the change for those bays as she was given a ticket a few minutes past 3.00pm.
"When you see the warden waiting at a strategic position with his fingers ready on the ticket machine, it doesn't paint a good picture at all. I understand the value of having the warden to stop car users abusing the system but it would be nice to see some compassion.
"I see it as very unfair, many residents knew those spaces as normal spaces before Tesco, yet the change should have been given more publicity and more visible markings."
As I walked past just after 3pm today, three cars were parked in the loading bay and the traffic warden was standing by, though I didn't see him ticket any of these particular cars.
He said "They don't read the sign properly, they think they are OK to park for an hour and then I get it in the ear."
It is also worth noting that a number of changes have been made to the taxi ranks in Wilmslow which came in to effect on Monday. Whilst these changes have added some extra parking spaces in the town centre, drivers need to take note where and when they park, particularly on the service road on Alderley Road, to avoid getting a ticket. For full details read our article on wilmslow.co.uk.
