Students blamed for parking chaos

paint double yellow lines along the length of Hook Lane or to bring in a residents' parking scheme for the area.

County councillor Francis Oppler, whose Bognor Regis East division covers the estate, said he would support double yellow lines at the pinchpoints of road junctions around the area's roads.

'That has been recommended by the highways department to improve safety and traffic flow and I will back the county council on this. The residents were happy with these locations.

'I was delighted with the turnout at the meeting. It really shows the depth of feeling about this issue among the residents around the Glenwood estate.

'There is an ongoing problem there with inconsiderate and selfish parking by students from the university in the roads close to the campus. I've seen evidence of cars parked outside peoples' front doors so the residents can't get in or out of their properties. That situation can't continue because it is damaging peoples' quality of life too much.'

Cllr Oppler said he would be arranging a meeting with the university's estates manager and Mr Bennett to enable a potential solution to the parking problem to be found. Potential long-term solutions included making more use of the Arun District Council-owned car parks in London Road and Hotham Park on the other side of the A259 from the campus.

Hook Lane resident Frederick Brown said the parking problems were annoying himself and his neighbours. 'Cars can be parked here from Monday morning to Friday or Saturday. I know at the furthest end of Hook Lane people there have trouble getting in and out of their driveways because of the parked cars. Double yellow lines along the entire road just wouldn't work because all the people have got cars,' he commented. He suggested that the university should convert the rarely used tennis courts on its campus into an additional car park to supplement its main parking spaces off Mead Lane.

Bognor Regis Town Council has supported the double yellow lines around the road junctions to improve congestion and road safety. It has also called on the university's officials to back a car sharing scheme among students and to maintain its student bus service between the Bognor and Chichester campuses.

The university has 5,160 students, with one in three of them at the Bognor campus on which there are 155 parking spaces. Ninety of those are in the Mead Lane car park. Parking enforcement is in operation on the site for those who do not have the required permits.

A university spokesman said it was aware of problems which could be caused by students who parked around the Bognor campus. But the county council would not allow the campus car park to be extended because it did not want more traffic on the narrow surrounding roads.

'Students who live on site are not allowed to park on our campuses, otherwise they would take up spaces for those who have to travel long distances, and this means they are likely to park on nearby roads. That can cause a problem if they are less than considerate.'