VISITORS to events in Lichfield over the Bank Holiday weekend have been criticised for “selfish” parking.
Vehicles were left on verges and paths around the city as thousands of people attended Crooked House and the Lichfield Food Festival.
A number of residents living near the city centre said parked cars had made some footpaths unusable as drivers sought spaces.
One local told Lichfield Live:
“Why has the council decided in its wisdom to have a food fair and a music event on the same weekend with less parking spaces available due to the Birmingham Road multi-storey being knocked down?”
Another added:
“It’s just selfish with no consideration for others.
“Pavements were blocked and pedestrians couldn’t get past without going into the road.”
The parking problems came as a trial was carried out which saw visitors prevented from leaving their vehicles on roads around Beacon Park during the Crooked House event and the demolition of the Birmingham Road multi-storey continues.
Some recently resurfaced roads in the city centre were also awaiting new double yellow lines to be painted.
A spokesperson for Lichfield District Council said provision had been available for vehicles attending both events:
“With tens of thousands of visitors this Bank Holiday weekend, we knew parking would be difficult at peak times.
“To help alleviate this, we arranged overflow parking at Stowe Field, used temporary signage to highlight under-used car parks, and employed marshalls to help our taxi ranks run smoothly.
“While we know some people struggled to find car parking, our monitoring over the weekend suggested that there were spaces available throughout the weekend at various city centre car parks.”
Absolute shambles. We normally go away for the August bank holiday weekend, but didn’t this year and it was incredible to see the number of cars just dumped all over the city, even as far out as North Lichfield. All over the pavements, opposite blind junctions, on any stretch of road that didn’t have double-yellows, and some even with.
We abandoned shopping in Lichfield over last weekend – so went to Tamworth, free parking, busy – but now our most likely future shopping destination. Sorry Lichfield but no parking = no business from us
“While we know some people struggled to find car parking, our monitoring over the weekend suggested that there were spaces available throughout the weekend at various city centre car parks.”
Well, I don’t know who was doing the monitoring, but I think they need to go to Specsavers. Whilst it’s lovely that we have visitors to Lichfield, this should not be to the detriment of local residents, even if it is only for one or two days but the number of days inconveniencing residents is increasing year on year and now I’ve read that someone wants to introduce a 4-day Glastonbury type festival and Lichfield simply does not have the infrastructure for existing events let alone one for four consecutive days. Just look at what is happening in large European cities where the locals are rising up against being overrun by tourists.
I’m glad we chose to go away for the weekend we live right by the park and we heard from our neighbour on our return that the parking was horrendous she is in a wheelchair like myself and said she had to go in the road to get around. What a stupid idea to host two main events the same weekend knowing it would cause traffic problems, especially after demolishing the car park.
All you need to do is level Friersgate site ,slap some “temporary ” tarmac down and whoopee you have a money making carpark
It was inevitable really . Multi storey knocked down , b and m car park used for food festival so not much car parking left . Stowe field wasn’t used to its capacity and why not have parking on other parts of beacon park like for other events . Typical non sensical from the council and authorities as usual .
Why on earth did they decide to close the car park at the rear of B&M. This caused more parking chaos
If you are from out of town how would you know the double yellows are not marked, you are not doing anything wrong? Typical nonsense of two tier local government. A unitary authority would have an events meeting that should have picked up the highway maintenance situation. Did the County and District meet? I would not be surprised if Rachel Reeves gives County Councils the heave ho, when it now appears more savings in expenditure are required, no doubt in part from local government.
Queen Street is single yellows, so both sides could have been used on the Sunday, I don’t know if it was? Also not sure if visitors understand single yellows.
As for the reduction in council car parking, not exactly a surprise. The Nimbys of Swinfen Broun Road and their illegal cones have not helped either, a beggar-thy-neighbour policy, just pushing the problem onto others. Was the park there when you bought the houses? Various parties have created this perfect storm.
If car parking spaces were available I think it answers the question that people don’t want to walk and outside Sundays don’t want to pay. We had a car parked outside our house fully on the pavement. As for someone mentioning plans for 4 day Glastonbury style festival…I think you took the bait, it’s a wind up. I live not far from the park and knew nothing about Stowe Field parking so chances are not many others did. Also agree with others, why have the food festival the same weekend as Crooked House?
Lichfield really isn’t worth paying to park anywhere in. It’s mostly hairdresser charity shops and cafes can go to retail parks and its free. Greedy car parking is sure fire way to kill any town centre
blah bla blah: what a surprise just finished demolising the multi-storey and there’s not enough parking. went into lichfield no dropping off except for blue badge owners so older folk are having to walk over rickety broken slabs and uneven pavements. I’m sure the new mp (whatisname) will soon put a picture up telling everyone how great it was for lichfield whilst actual lichfeldians walk or stay home. theres soon not going to be a blade of grass left in lichfield. as its concreted over for housing , so parking will be even more difficult.
What does the council expect after selling off car parks for short term gain but long term loss. The noise from the Crooked House event was abhorrent too, with a continual tuneless boom boom boom, shaking the house walls for hours on end, on our days off work.
I’m beginning to think that if there’s ever a Whinge Olympics, Lichfield Live’s commenters are a shoo-in for a gold medal. Thousands of visitors to our lovely little city, attending two great events that pumped money into our local economy, & the focus is all on some inconsiderate parking that lasted a few hours at most.
As my late mother was wont to say before she clipped me round the ear, “Give me strength!” 🙄
If people think it’s bad now, what if they build the 300 odd flats on the old Friars gate site
and the cinema, with the multi storey car park demolished.
At least when they built the hotel and apartments at the Friary they built a car park also
What Lichfield needs is Park & Ride.
We’ve been asking for it for years.
But as usual, the council has done nothing.
They reduce parking still further and then blame it on motorists. They have to park somewhere.
With the idiots running Lichfield council is it any wonder carparkng is a problem, so many different car parking spaces with different rules in each car park, the situation was made worse when the one carpark was handed to a private company, and boy didn’t they take great delight in handing out fines to people who didn’t realise it wasn’t council run any longer, Even the people with disability badges run the gauntlet of different rules in the car parking spaces