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.”
