Student faces £500 bill for car repairs in parking row
TENSIONS continue to rise over student parking in Ormskirk, with some angered to the extent they have resorted to vandalism.
Peter Dobson, a student at Edge Hill University, has been left with at least £500 of damage after his tyres were slashed and his Fand Rover scratched while it was parked outside his girlfriend’s house on Wigan Road.
Peter said: “I’ve got four ruined tyres, at the cost of £125 each, the paintwork ruined.
“The paintwork was already pretty dodgy, but now there’s a huge mark down one side. It was done overnight on September 27.”
Peter is not the only student who has parked on Wigan Road in recent times, but it appears that anger is escalating towards students leaving their vehicles in residential areas.
He said: “We spoke to a student that parked there in pretty much the exact same spot all of last year and he had nothing done to his car, not even a note.
“I parked there for just over a week, because my girlfriend lives on Wigan Road, so I was walking to uni with her. When it happened, it had been there overnight.
“All the other student cars that were parked near me live on Wigan Road, and they received multiple notes, all of them got keyed and some of their tyres were let down as well. The police said that they’d conduct some questioning in the local area, but I’ve not heard anything back.
“We don’t believe there is CCTV, a couple of the neighbours that we spoke to said that there wasn’t.”
Peter has been warned of a community group hardening its stance against students parking on roads.
He said: “I spoke to a couple of the neighbours and they mentioned a community watch that was stepping up its activities against students a bit.
“I feel like there’s definitely a hatred from a lot of residents in Ormskirk towards students.”
Peter backed calls for a park and ride, adding that the lack of facilities at the university and poor public transport links were forcing the hands of students.
“A lot of it lies with the university for giving out too many permits for spaces and not expanding the car park to the extent they’ve expanded the university.
“I don’t feel there’s space to build another car park as it currently is, but I wouldn’t be against a park and ride scheme where they created a parking facility farther away – I feel like that would be a good solution for a lot of people.
“If you don’t get on campus you leave your car and you don’t know if it’s going to be damaged, if you’re going to get a ticket, there’s no consistency. Along St Helens Road, they all park on the pavement and I must say I don’t agree with that and I don’t do it.
“I personally would get public transport in if I could, but it would take me three times as long.
“I’m originally from Ormskirk and I now live just outside Burscough,
“It’s either a 15-minute drive or a 20-minute walk to the bus or the train, then another 15-minute walk at the other end.
“It costs more to get a train from Burscough to Ormskirk than it does in fuel for me over the course of the year.”
WHAT do you think of the parking issues in Ormskirk? Email Advertiser reporter Christy Byrne at: christy.byrne@ reachplc.com