Anger over car parking in Stewart Street

East Dunbartonshire Council re-painted and extended the existing double yellow lines in the car park behind the shops on Stewart Street, (Haydock’s music shop etc), last year.

The council adopted this land several years ago but it’s unclear whether they now own it or if it still belongs to the traders on Stewart Street.

Traders have used the land for free parking for many years and the owner of The Lingerie Boutique, Louise Marr, claims they were previously told they could still park there and not be issued with a ticket.

She says that verbal agreement stood until last week - when two motorists received tickets.

Louise Marr, owner of The Lingerie Boutique on Stewart Street, said: “The wardens told us they would not issue people with tickets for parking there.

“So I was horrified to see a warden giving someone a ticket last week.

“We want the double yellow lines to be removed so that we can still use those spaces.

“It’s ridiculous that I have to keep leaving my shop to feed a meter or move my car.

“If I pay for a full day’s parking it costs £5 a day - that’s £25 a week!

“The council should have provided local business owners with free allocated parking spaces.

“It does not make sense that a good piece of land for parking will now be left empty every day.

“There’s enough room for about 20 cars to park there. It’s madness not to use it!”

Traders were also angry that they were being given tickets for being one minute over their time and they think the council should introduce a grace period to allow them to feed the meter.

Louise added: “Sometimes you are in the middle of serving a customer when you need to add some time on your meter.

“What are we supposed to do? Just run out of our shop and throw our customer out?”

We are awaiting a comment from East Dunbartonshire Council.