Bournemouth beachgoers slapped with £50k fines after drivers resorted to dumping their cars on yellow lines and pavements when they couldn’t find a space on packed seafrontSome 764 tickets were issued by BCP Council officers across the weekend
Beachgoers were slapped with more than £50,000 of parking fines in one weekend after drivers resorted to dumping their cars on yellow lines and the pavement when they couldn’t find space on a packed seafront.
Thousands of people flocked to Bournemouth, Dorset, to make the most of the unseasonably warm weather as temperatures touched 90F on Saturday.
But car parks were full by mid-morning so unruly motorists took matters into their own hands, ditching their cars in any space they could find.
There were numerous examples of vehicles parked on double yellow lines along the clifftop, and one BMW driver even plonked their car on the pavement.
This meant families had to go into the busy road to get around it.
Beachgoers in Bournemouth were slapped with more than £50,000 of parking fines in one weekend
Thousands of people flocked to Bournemouth, Dorset, to make the most of the unseasonably warm weather as temperatures touched 90F on Saturday
But car parks were full by mid-morning so unruly motorists took matters into their own hands, ditching their cars in any space they could find
Cars parked illegally on both sides of roads forced traffic to crawl through the narrow gap in the middle, adding to the carnage.
Some 764 tickets were issued by BCP Council, who had more than 20 parking enforcement officers on patrol giving out the £70 penalties, which are reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days.
Resident Dean Hawthorne said: ‘As I walked down to the pier there were a couple of staff out there managing it, saying ‘you can’t go any further’, turning people away.
‘But when I got up towards Southbourne, people parked their cars and blocked the pavement, so you had to go in the road.
‘It’s a family place, and people were trying to take their kids down to the beach. It’s just not very considerate.
‘Bournemouth is a tourist place. But if people are just going to come down and dump their car, it’s just not cricket.’
Another person commented on social media: ‘There were places to park, further back from the seafront… They are just too lazy to walk more than a few feet.’
However, another local expressed sympathy for the visitors saying it was too expensive to get the train down to the resort.
They posted: ‘This is quite a tricky one actually as many of these people drive hours to come here and there’s nowhere to park so parking for £35 a day isn’t a bad option.
‘Trains not an option due to the expense and the fact you need to lug all your stuff from the station to the beach.’
There were numerous examples of vehicles parked on double yellow lines along the clifftop
The state of parking over the weekend meant families had to go into the busy road to get around it
BCP Council said they had put on extra traffic management staff to cope with the influx of beachgoers
Council chiefs said they were ‘incredibly frustrated’ with the actions of the offending drivers
BCP Council said they had put on extra traffic management staff to cope with the influx of beachgoers and they were ‘incredibly frustrated’ with the actions of the offending drivers.
Councillor Mike Cox, portfolio holder for finance said: ‘It’s inevitable when we get really hot weekends like this that people will journey down to visit our beautiful seafront and we welcome them, but we were incredibly frustrated to see some drivers parking inconsiderately at the expense of residents and businesses.
‘At busy times, we ensure more officers are on duty across the seafront.
‘Extra traffic management staff were allocated this weekend to the busiest areas, in addition to more than 20 parking Civil Enforcement Officers on duty on both days.’
Share or comment on this article:
Source link
CHECK OUT: Top Travel Destinations
READ MORE: Travel News
