Families using cones to reserve parking threatened with year in jail

Families using traffic cones to reserve parking spaces outside their homes have been threatened with jail time.

Neighbours living on Maes yr Afon in Aberystwyth struggle to park near their homes because it is a sought-after spot for people visiting the town centre.

The street is next to a pay and display car park but locals say drivers often will park outside their homes.

People in the street clubbed together to buy traffic cones in a bid to reserve parking spaces to combat the problem.

However, they were shocked when council officials wrote to residents warning they could face fines or a prison sentence of almost a year for 'obstruction of a highway'.

Ceredigion Council Corporate director for highways Rhodri Llwyd reads: 'It has been noted that some residents of Maes yr Afon have been placing traffic cones and/or other objects on the highway to reserve parking spaces for their own private vehicles.

'We write to remind you these objects may constitute an unnecessary obstruction of the highway.

'If a person without lawful authority or excuse in any way obstructs the free passage along a highway (they are) guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks or a fine, or both.'

Councillor Mair Benjamin, who lives on the road which is next door to a football ground, said neighbours have called for the street to be made permit holders only.

Cllr Benjamin, 79, suffers from a heart condition and a bad back and said it was vital for people like herself to get a spot near her home.

'I am currently very restricted and I use a walking frame which I keep in the boot. I need that parking space,' she said.

'There are residents here who are elderly and they require a spot close to their homes. 

'So we started purchasing the cones and putting them out earlier this year. You would get the odd person, not very polite, who would move the bollards and park their car.

'One of these people must have called the county council. Then all of us have received letters. Of course in the following days I had lots of people knocking on my door in disbelief.

'I've told my neighbours: 'If they want to throw a 79-year-old woman into prison over all of this and they want to free up spaces which should be for real prisoners for me then carry on.'

She said the residents living on the road would be willing to pay for permits to ensure they got a spot near their homes.

She said: 'We have previously felt like we were getting residential parking but that has never happened.

'We're now getting to a point where the population of my ward is getting older and the people living on the streets are getting older and we need to be able to park near our homes.

'The money that would come in for the council for parking permits would be lucrative. No one is asking for parking permits for free.'

Paul Wright, also 79, said that before selling his car earlier this year he would put cones out to save him using the nearby pay-and-display carpark.

He said: 'Whenever I moved my car I could never get back in and I was having to pay in the car park, which I thought was wrong as a resident who owned my own house, I couldn't get back in here. 'And this happened all the time.'

A Ceredigion County Council spokesperson said: 'Whilst Ceredigion County Council does not comment on individual cases, placing items without permission on the public highway thereby causing an obstruction is an offence under Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980.'