OFFICIALS have blamed a lack of county council-owned land for continued parking problems.
Parking in Middleton-in-Teesdale has been an issue for many years. Issues range from residents not able to park outside their homes to visitors leaving vehicles in the village’s main parking area on The Hill all day and congested roadside parking outside shops.
Since 1999 the parish council has had an agreement with Middleton Sports and Social Club – meaning the car park is available for long-stay public parking from 8am to 6.30pm every day.
Before its sale, the Durham County Council owned Field Studies Centre eased the problems with parking being made available.
Measures previously explored included the development of a car and coach park with housing to the west of Bridge Street, public parking in Middleton auction mart car park on non-sale days, as well as time-limited parking restrictions around Chapel
Row.
Ten years ago, Durham County Council looked at introducing a two-hour time limit on The Hill car park but was met with a storm of objections.
In 2007, parish councillors, along with county councillor Ted Henderson, drew up a list of potential locations for a new car park, but this came to nothing.
The parish council asked Durham County Council officials late last year for a review of the situation.
But the county’s traffic team leader, Lee Mowbray, has said there were no immediate plans for a review because one had been carried out ahead of creating a disabled parking bay in early 2022.
He added: “We do regularly review the various restrictions in the towns and villages across the county to determine if there are any changes we can make.
“The difficulty we have with Middleton is similar to a lot of rural locations in that other than the adopted highway we don’t own a lot of land.
“Hence the main tool we have at our disposal to manage parking is the introduction of restrictions or time-limited bays to manipulate where the vehicles park and for how long.
“A number of years ago I did look at introducing time restrictions on the on-street parking bays in the village. I thought this would be a good way to manage the layby areas and open some of the spaces to be able to attract passing trade to the adjacent businesses.
“Unfortunately, a number of residents didn’t share my views and we received a number of objections and even a petition opposing the changes which meant that they did not progress at that time.
“Because of the limited available highway we have in the village, I believe the only way to gain more parking space is to develop a site somewhere near the village centre.”
Parish councillors agreed to seek information from the county council in respect of the village hall, which has been closed due to the poor condition of the building, because it was identified as a potential location for an electric vehicle charge point by officials.
The clerk has asked for details on plans to demolish and replace the hall with a view to use the space for public parking.
