Borough councillors have hit out at Norfolk County Council after its technical blunder means a “bugbear” seaside car park will not be resurfaced any time soon.
At a meeting of Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s environment committee on November 4, borough councillors were told the “micropore” material county council engineers planned to use for the Roman Place car park, off Regent Road, was “not fit for purpose”.
Kerry Robinson-Payne, councillor for the Nelson Ward, said the news was “disappointing” and “a real let down”, and that she and her colleagues had questioned the suitability of the material months ago.
Business owners have often complained they cannot access their own garages, and that the poorly-maintained site is a “blight” on the area. One resident, last year, said the car park was “absolute chaos”.
Miranda Lee, an officer for GYBC, said: “Unfortunately, the engineers had only trialled the material on pavements when we agreed to use it, but they’ve since realised it’s not possible for a car parking space where cars are turning and rotating.
“We do not have the budget to resurface with a different material.
“Instead, we are proposing to fix potholes, re-line existing spaces, replace the signage and do a general tidy up.
“The current restrictions will remain - 24 hours parking with no return for 12 hours - instead of the new 90-min restriction from 9-7pm and permit-only areas we discussed in the last meeting.
“This is good in some ways at the scaled-back approach will be less disruptive for businesses and residents”.
But councillors were not impressed with the “revised proposals”, with Ms Robinson-Payne calling the Regent Road car park “a real bugbear”.
“This part of the county is often forgotten about and someone needs to take responsibility”, she said.
Carl Annison added: “I said from the beginning this material wouldn’t be appropriate. You might as well throw a whole load of digestive biscuits in the car park and get people to drive over them.”
Meanwhile James Bensly, who called the car park “a real thorn” in councillors’ side, said he felt the county council were “kicking the can down the road”.
Nevertheless, councillors voted unanimously to begin work on the “scaled back” improvements - as well as a recommendation to ask Norfolk County Council’s infrastructure steering group to consider resurfacing work in the future.
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