Council puts measures in place at park
RESIDENTS SAY THE SITUATION WAS BECOMING A ‘NIGHTMARE’
RESIDENTS living near Cotgrave Country Park have welcomed temporary traffic measures stopping visitors from using nearby roads to park their cars.
The signs and bollards, which came into effect in December last year, prohibit any drive using any of the roads around the country park to park their vehicle.
They have been installed along Hollygate Lane, Harvest Drive and Maygreen Avenue.
Similar traffic calming measures have been installed outside Gedling Country Park to stop visitors parking on nearby residential streets.
‘No parking’ signs have also been put up outside Holme Pierrepont, with a number of fines given out to drivers who parked there and ignored the signs.
People living close to the Cotgrave park say they called on the council to act as the situation was becoming “dangerous” and a nightmare” with visitors parking unsafely when they came to visit the park.
David Burton, who has lived on Harvest Drive opposite the park for the past three years, said: “The only issue really was cars were parked on both sides of the roads leading up to the park.
“It’s not the biggest car park and it’s obviously been busier during lockdown, which is what you’d expect. “It was a nightmare trying to get off the drive. We’ve got two cars and it was proving really tricky. There is a free car park still available for visitors to use off Hollygate Lane. Anna Read, who also lives on Harvest Drive, said: “Because the park is so popular, people have been parking on the side roads. They were parking all the way up this road and on the main road too - which was pretty dangerous. “A few people complained and the council put these emergency measures in, I think it was a bit before Christmas. “It has helped, definitely. Sometimes we couldn’t even get off our drives. So I think it’s worked so far. Councillor Richard Butler, who represents Cotgrave for Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council, says the measures were necessary. “It all started back in November,” he said. Because of the unusually nice weather and lockdown we had more and more visitors to the park. Which is great, and we are very proud of our park, but unfortunately it created a bit of a problem for residents. “So I asked the council for some help in trying to ease the situation and the cones and signs, although not particularly pretty, are very effective. It’s a shame that we have had to do it but you have to consider the needs of everyone.”
It was a nightmare trying to get off the drive.
David Burton, Harvest Drive resident