Northampton grandfather slams railway station commuters for making his life a 'nightmare'

A Northampton grandfather has said commuters who park down his street are making his life a 'nightmare' - and he is calling on the council to fix the issue.

Dave Cooper 74, said commuters using the railway station park their vehicles in Parkwood Street, St James, and often make life difficult for him and his 14 other elderly neighbours in the area.

Parkwood Street is just an eight minute walk away from the station and is free to park in.

Dave said he and his neighbours previously completed a survey to figure out the best way to resolve the issue but the council 'never' got back to him.

He said: "Normally we can't get down here or we can't park outside our houses. Ambulances and fire brigade have problems.

"I take the dog for a walk at 6.30am every morning and they are down here parking up at 6am until 6pm. It's ridiculous. Absolutely stupid.

"It's only a narrow street and we have got parking on both sides of the road and on the pavement, which is illegal."

According to confused.com, if you’ve been caught parking on the pavement by the police, you could be charged with “unnecessary obstruction of any part of the highway”.

But, according to the Living Streets foundation, police rarely take action. That’s because the existing laws are unclear, and it can be difficult to prosecute.

Dave added that most of his neighbours are disabled and use mobility scooters, which they have to drive in the road to bypass the parked cars.

He also said he has his own parking bay but sometimes it is taken by the rogue parkers, which means he has to park far away from his property and walk the distance.

"If it keeps happening I will move away because it's just ridiculous. It gets me so wound up, it really does.

"There's a car park at the station, I don't know how much it is but they [commuters] should get paid travel allowance to cover it.

"The majority of us in this street want permit parking but we have not heard a thing back from the council survey."

Mr Cooper was asked what he would like to say to the commuters.

"If I find out where you live, how would you like it if I parked outside your house? Especially if you knew how hard it was being disabled. They couldn't give a damn," he said.

Councillor Rufia Ashraf, of the Labour Party, is fighting Mr Cooper's corner and looking to get the issue sorted.

The councillor said: "Residents living by the station are constantly telling me they are fed up of commuters parking on their streets daily because they don't want to pay to park at the station.

"I think we need to have conversations with Network Rail and commuters to encourage them to use the railway station car park."

West Northamptonshire Council has been contacted for comment.