Promenade parking space for mayor could be reserved for police

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THE mayor’s parking space in Cheltenham’s Promenade could be allocated to the police.

The site is outside the entrance to the Municipal Offices, which is the home of the borough council.

It was made famous by Ash White after he parked his eye-catching orange Lamborghini Huracan there in 2016 and got several parking tickets for doing so.

But now there is a proposal to allocate the space to officers.

Gloucestershire County Council, which is responsible for highway matters, has advertised its intention to make the change.

In a public notice in the Gloucestershire Echo, it said it planned to revoke the parking place for the mayor and establish it instead as a parking bay for the police.

It gave people until December 14 to comment on the proposal.

Current Cheltenham mayor Councillor Bernard Fisher (LD, Swindon Village) said an agreement had been reached for the space to be used by the police and not the mayor in the future.

He said it had not been used by the mayor in recent years, with the incumbent instead using another space allocated for the mayor - in a members’ car park at the back of the offices.

Asked for his view on the planned switch, he said: “I totally agree with it. It’s an old piece of nonsense really.

“It’s not been used by the mayor for donkey’s years.”

He said the large space at the front of the building had once been needed to accommodate an old Daimler that was used to take the mayor to and from his or her events.

But he said times had changed and the current car used for mayoral duties, and occasionally by the council’s chief executive, was a Toyota Avensis.

Mr Fisher said having the space available for the police would make sense as officers did sometimes visit the council offices.

He also felt it would be good to have a visible police presence in the centre of the town if a car was parked there.

He added that he was into his 12th year as a councillor and the only person he had seen using the mayor’s space at the front of the offices was Mr White.

Gloucestershire police have been approached for comment on the council’s planned future use of the space.

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