Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Bid to end street’s driver ‘stand-offs’
RESIDENTS on a street near Ninewells Hospital say they hope new parking restrictions on the road can put an end to congestion and driver “stand-offs”.
Dundee City Council is proposing to add double yellow lines to the length of Earn Crescent between Ninewells Crescent and Menzieshill House.
Existing spaces at the corner of Dickson Avenue and Earn Crescent will also be removed under the proposals.
The restrictions are set to be put in place ahead of the opening of a new primary school, which will replace Hillside and Gowrie Primary schools and Menzieshill Nursery.
But locals say the lines may also cut problems caused by people parking on the street to attend hospital — an issue they say has plagued them for decades.
Jim Whitton, 78, who lives in Earn Crescent, said: “A lot of the time it’s staff from the hospital — this is down to Ninewells. It’s been a problem for the last 20 or 30 years since they started charging for parking.
“There just isn’t enough parking at the hospital and parking around here has been taken away from us.”
He said it was positive to see the council taking steps to discourage people from parking on the street, but had doubts about its effectiveness.
He said: “It can be dangerous – you can end up having stand-offs with other drivers. Even if the council stop parking here, people will still try.”
The proposal is just the latest measure put forward by the city council, which has previously introduced permits and spaces with two-hour limits in the street.
Katrina Dolan, who has lived on Earn Crescent for 15 years, said she wasn’t surprised to see new restrictions coming in.
The 49-year-old, who works as a nurse at Kings Cross Hospital, said: “I thought the council would probably do something with the school opening.
“It’s always been a problem here. Before they brought the permits in, if you went out for shopping and came back, someone would’ve taken your space.”
She said the council should consider offering more temporary parking.
“The problem sometimes with the twohour limit is that you can’t have visitors up for long,” she added.
“It happens a lot here and at the shops behind us — it’s always chock-a-block.”
However, medical representatives raised concerns that staff at Ninewells could be affected by the plans.
Bob McGlashan, senior officer at the Royal College of Nursing, said parking issues put “difficult pressure” on staff.
He added: “While we obviously have sympathy with residents living around Ninewells, restricting parking will, regrettably, just add to overall levels of stress of staff, patients and relatives.”
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “These proposals are connected with road safety for the opening of the new school.”