'˜Give us back our street!'

The move has been led by two householders, Calvin Orley and Simon Jones, who are fed up with not being able to park near their homes close to the Spar shop, due to people coming into town and parking on the street all day.

The campaign would see a zone created for all streets local to the town centre end of Grantham Road including parts of Mareham Lane and London Road, up to St Edmund’s Road and Lord Street. The size of the parking zone is designed to prevent parking being displaced elsewhere.

Mr Jones said: “North Kesteven District Council have opened a car park adjacent to the Elite fish and chip shop which is not being used as it could be and without a resident parking scheme there is no encouragement for the public to use it as there is free parking outside our houses.”

He said that would be made worse with the possibility of Southgate being pedestrianised and traffic increasing.

Mr Jones said matters had got worse since yellow lines were painted on London Road.

“It is having quite an impact on residents and local businesses on Grantham Road. It is very difficult to get parked at any time of day or have deliveries or tradespeople visit,” he added.

Mr Jones suggested the permits would be another revenue stream for the council, along with potentially increased usage of the new car park.

People are invited to respond to the survey leaflets based on ones successfully used for a scheme on Eastgate. Mr Orley said: “There needs to be at least a 50 per cent agreement in the area and this is the first step.”

The residents have been supported by local district councillor Tim Conning, who said: “If there is sufficient positive feedback I will do everything I can to get formal consultation under way.”

Mark Taylor, head of environment and public protection at NKDC, said: “We will look at any information that comes forward from this.”

Of the new car park, NKDC’s economic development manager Alan Gray added: “Given the scale of on-street day-time parking in the surrounding area there is clearly a need for a car park such as this on the south side of Sleaford.

“The council acknowledges that take-up has not been as strong as we’d hoped for, but we will continue to promote its availability and affordability among businesses and schools within the town and look at other ways we can encourage drivers to use it.”