New restrictions to stop drivers parking outside a village pub have taken a step forward, despite some concerns it would be a ‘waste of money’.
Cambridgeshire County Council has approved plans to paint double yellow lines outside The Carpenters Arms, in Great Wilbraham.
The new restrictions were requested by the parish council to address safety concerns of people parking their cars on a blind bend outside of the pub.
A council report said the double yellow lines are proposed outside and opposite The Carpenters Arms, as well as along the curved bend in the road from Church Street, to the High Street, to Angle End.
In response, one villager pointed out that the pub has its own car park and said overspill parking was a “very rare occurrence”.
Another told the council the lines would be a “waste of taxpayers money” and said the money should be spent on other things such as repairing potholes.
But council officers said the funding came from a ring fenced budget, and said comments from others in the village and the parish council suggested parking on the bend was “frequent enough occurrence to be a concern”.
Concerns were also raised that the double yellow lines would lead to people parking elsewhere and potentially seeing some people’s driveways being blocked.
However, there were people who contacted the county council to share their support of the plans.
The proposals were considered by the traffic manager at the county council and Cllr Claire Daunton.
They decided to approve the plans but slightly shortened the length of road covered by the double yellow lines on Angle End.
Their decision report said: “Though there is the concern of referral parking, it is deemed that there are sufficient on-street parking provisions in the surrounding area to account for this and that this does not supersede the necessity to address the safety concern associated with vehicles parking on the blind bend/around the respective junctions.”
