Parking problems

East Suffolk Council has now taken over running of all the council car parks in its area, which include the coastal towns of Felixstowe, Aldeburgh and Southwold. Inland, the boundary runs from the outskirts of Ipswich to up to Bungay and includes towns such as Woodbridge.

No motorhomes over 5.5m in length or 3.5 tonnes are allowed to park and paying for two bays is not an option. This applies in all car parks run by the council. This would seem to exclude virtually all motorhomes, but campervans within the limits can park.

I only hope this is not the start of a purge on motorhomes that will spread to other councils. Roadside parking or paying for a campsite and staying the night now appears to be the only option.

I found this out by phoning Parking Services, East Suffolk Council ☎ 01502 523260 when I wanted to make sure I could park my 7.09m Auto-Trail in Manor Terrace Car Park at Felixstowe. I visit Felixstowe every year, but this is the first time I have wanted to park a motorhome there. I’ve only ever seen this quite large car park 10% occupied.

I also wanted to call at Woodbridge on the way. Looking down on Google Maps you can see that, in Station Road Car Park, there is a section in between this car park and the one on Jetty Lane at the back that used to have what appears to be motorhome bays and this car park is listed in the 2019 MMM Motorhome Parking Guide. When you use Street View, you can go into the car park and see that the area with large bays is now grassed over and all tarmac gone.

Tony Cutt

ED East Suffolk Council commented, “Some councilowned car parks cannot accommodate larger vehicles due to the size of the marked bays. However, there are a few designated car parks with parking spaces allocated to motorhomes and caravans.

“We’re also looking into other options of offering parking spaces for larger vehicles and, as part of this, we’re currently reviewing a number of unmarked car parks and whether they are suitable for this purpose, depending on any height, weight and/or length restrictions in place. Once we have completed this, a full list of car parks in East Suffolk, including those with allocated parking spaces for motorhomes and caravans, will be added to our website.”

As we were just going to press, the council announced that it had lifted the 5.5m length restriction on 12 of its car parks, although the maximum length is no more than 8m.

The council has also added a page to its website for motorhome and campervan parking info eastsuffolk. gov.uk/visitors/parkingservices/larger-vehicles-andcampervans