Residents who live near a train station have claimed they are unable to park on their street because holidaymakers leave their vehicles there for months at a time.
Locals on Cromwell Road near Dorchester South station, Dorset, said their street has no parking restrictions.
As a result, people use it to access the Weymouth-Waterloo trains stop – dumping their cars there for days, week or even months at a time.
Locals said it leaves their road so packed with cars using the space for free parking that they cannot park there themselves. They often see people pass their windows pulling suitcases.
Local Mary Upward, 81, said: ‘I have been here 30 years, they’ve been doing that for 30 years. It’s something you put up with when you live here.
‘I find it annoying. A lot of people go on the train to go on holiday; there’s no need for that. I can understand if they’re just quickly going into town.
‘They get their suitcases out of the car. I wouldn’t like to see resident’s parking because we’ve got to pay for that – why should I pay for someone else to park?
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Locals on Cromwell Road (pictured) near Dorchester South station, Dorset, said their street has no parking restrictions, meaning people going on holiday leave their car there for weeks on end
David Eyres, 75, (pictured) said he made arrangements with his daughter to switch cars so one could keep a spot
‘I have had difficulty trying to park. My daughter [has] had to park in the next road with the shopping and carry it through to here.’
The retired local added: ‘I don’t know any of the cars on the street [today]. I had a row with someone [who was trying to park here]. I said: “I live here and I have lived here a long time’ but she said: ‘I got here before you, get out”.
‘She was really not nice. They can get a bit aggressive, especially the men.’
Anne Moors, 66, a care assistant, said: ‘It’s been the same thing for 20 years. It’s a simple case of, there’s a railway station.
‘People go on holiday, they park their cars, take their cases and off they go.
‘When my father-in-law was alive across the road, he had his legs amputated so he had a disabled parking space. A Land Rover parked there for three weeks.
‘We couldn’t move it because it had a disabled badge in the front. We called the police who said they couldn’t move it because it had the badge.
‘When you buy a house down here, you know the situation. Everybody said when I bought a house down here: “What about the parking?”
‘When they were building Brewery Square they had all their subcontractors down here for a bit until someone spoke to them.
Greg Day, 77, started a campaign to install resident parking but said some neighbours ‘didn’t want to know’, which he put down to ‘pathos’
Cars line the street in Dorset, with locals saying they are sometimes unable to park on the road
‘You can usually tell whose car is local because at 5.30pm most of them are on. Don’t move you car on a Wednesday, market day.
‘My car is up the road. The furthest I have ever had to park my car in the 20 years I have lived here is Rothsay Road.
‘It is difficult. We did try and do resident’s parking, but half wouldn’t do it. I would still be pro it in a sense but as the council said, it’s a public highway and anyone can park here. It is residential – if you’re going to go on holiday take a taxi to the station.
‘When they built these houses, they only had horses and carts, so I can’t put a driveway in the front garden.
‘On the whole, you put up with it. I have been known to say to someone: “Where am I going to park my car?” and they will scoot off to the station. It’s manners.
‘Most of Dorchester has this issue. It’s a town, it’s got a railway station.. People are going to come in, where are they going to park?
‘What the answer is, I don’t know. Resident parking doesn’t guarantee you a space, it just means you can’t park it for more than an hour.
‘We do get frustrated with it because most of the time it is: “Where are you going to park?” and sometimes with the size of the car and where you park it, you can’t get [your car] in.’
The street, which is very near a train station, is absolutely full to the brim with cars
Greg Day, 77, started a campaign to install resident parking but said some neighbours ‘didn’t want to know’, which he put down to ‘pathos’.
He said he had bought two private parking spaces out of necessity.
Mr Day said the issue was present in the neighbouring streets and blamed the proximity to the train station.
‘We had one person from London who had a holiday home somewhere, used to park here, go on the train and park his car here for weeks, then come back and park his car here again and get on the train back to London.
‘One of my neighbours had a go at him and he never parked in this street again.’
He said the situation was ‘disrespectful’.
Mr Day added: ‘I see it every day. I would like there to be private parking for residents only, all the time.
‘At least 15 years. It’s been a place for people to park their cars and go off on holiday. You can hear the trundle of the [suitcase] wheels from our front room.’
Another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘We know of at least one incident where there was a car parked next door for seven weeks.
‘Tradespeople and delivery people have nowhere to park. There’s a nice understanding locally that if people need to unload, they leave their car in the middle of the road and everyone understands.
Residents who live near the train station said people park on their street for free while they go on holiday
‘When the people who were gone for seven weeks came back, I gave them a right old mouthful – as did the people next door and next door to that.
‘They were very sheepish and the next time they came, they parked on Alfred Road.
‘We all understand that people can have up to three cars but that’s part and parcel of the area. But you can see how busy it is today and this is what it is like everyday.
‘It’s not so bad at the weekends because people might just go shopping for a couple of hours as opposed to leaving it and going to work.
‘I would definitely be a fan of resident parking. It’s fairer for everybody… If it was done for one permit per house, everyone would have the opportunity, and if you had an extra car, then it would be fair to say you should pay for the other ones.
‘It would mean people could go shopping or pick the kids up from school and not have to worry about parking when they came back.
‘We chat to each other on the street and ask: ‘Which postcode are you parked in this morning?’ And for all the naysayers, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say “I’d like to be able to see my car from the front door”.’
Emma, 45, said: ‘I have been living here for 13 years, and it has always been the same situation.
Mr Day said the issue was present in the neighbouring streets and blamed the proximity to the train station
‘It can literally be like I take my daughter to college and by the time I come back I can’t park. The main problem is when you’ve got shopping or little ones.
‘You also have some people whose mobility isn’t great and they can’t park their cars.
‘They quietly park their cars and I have never had any confrontation with anyone but you do see their suitcases.
‘I have a suitcase for work and I have had disgruntled neighbours who don’t know me and they have said: ‘You can’t park here.’
She said neighbours became suspicious of others owing to the frustration.
‘When we first moved in because we were an unknown car in the area, we had our car keyed.
‘It bothers me but I just get on with it and don’t take that much notice.
‘Some people, it’s a bit of a pastime keeping an eye on it and that becomes more of a problem.
‘I don’t know if resident parking would be better or not. We just deal with it, it’s just part of it.’
Hannah Smallden, 27, an environmental officer, said: ‘I’ve been living here my whole life. If you can park here, you’re lucky.
The street has no parking restrictions, and therefore anyone can leave their vehicle there
‘It’s tough to park. You’re often parked around the corner or on someone else’s road. You get used to seeing people from other roads parked here or vice versa.
‘Monmouth Road gets really busy as well. It’s not far, it’s just more the fact you’re annoying someone else by doing it. My neighbours are getting old so they always have to keep making sure they can get their space in the road.
‘I have lots of gear for my job which is too heavy for me to lug around. There are quite a lot of accidents on this road as well; it’s a dangerous road.
‘Not fast accidents but on the corners because cars park where they shouldn’t do, you can’t see around the corner so you have to poke out and hope no one is driving fast on the other road.
‘My mum wrote her car off on the corner, I had a crash down here last year and my car was written off while I was trying to get to work and people’s cars are always getting scraped.
‘Someone was parking here for six months, and I did end up catching them. They decided to park and go off to get a plane and didn’t come back for months.
‘I recognise it’s not illegal but it’s annoying. You always see people with their suitcases going down the road – which I get, airport parking is horrific.
‘When people go away on holiday and park really poorly, so they take up two-and a-bit spaces, it’s [disrespectful]. I’ve always thought there should be lines showing parking spaces.’
She was unsure about resident parking, saying: ‘Yes and no – the only no is that it’s just another bill.’
Locals have branded the issue a ‘nuisance’ and wish parking was easier on the road
Pam Groves, 81, said: ‘It’s dreadful. It’s absolutely a nightmare.
‘I am afraid to move my car. I’ve got heart failure, so I can’t walk far and I’m afraid to move my car in case I can’t get it back in the road when I come back from anywhere.
‘I can understand people doing it – if you can park for free, it’s better. But I feel sometimes they don’t think about the residents. We need to park our cars.
‘I used to go to a country club and I was afraid to get back after the street lights had gone out, especially in the winter, and have to walk from Rothsay Road in the pitch black.’
David Eyres, 75, said he made arrangements with his daughter to switch cars so one could keep a spot. He said: ‘It is nearly impossible.
‘It makes you bad-tempered because if you need to do something to your car, you can’t. It’s not so bad if it’s the same people every day because you know they’re going to go but it’s the ones that go off on the train or to America.
‘We did have the chance to have resident parking but it’s a lot of money if you have more than one car. I would be a fan because I’ve only got one car..’
Mandy Edwards, 64, said: ‘I had my chimney taken down in November, but because the scaffolders can’t park, they can’t take the scaffolding [outside my house] down.
‘It’s a nuisance – the access to the lane is blocked. You can get through but it’s not ideal.
‘You see people driving up with their suitcases all the time. Towards the end of my husband’s life, he had a disabled scooter he used and when you have to park around the corner, I would literally have to make up the scooter so he could drive it home as he couldn’t go anywhere without the scooter.
‘We had to buy a more expensive one that I could take apart to put in the car so he could get home.’
Robin Heaver, 46, an operations executive, said: ‘It’s very difficult. People are here to go on the train in the mornings and their cars are here all day. Obviously sometimes they park badly and you cannot get through the road.’
Town councillor Molly Rennie told the Dorset Echo: ‘I really feel for the residents as it’s about the selfishness of people who park there for weeks to go on holiday.
‘The town council’s planning team has approached Dorset Council regarding an overall parking strategy as we’re not the only town to suffer.’
MailOnline has contacted Dorset Council for comment.
