Parking putting lives at risk, say residents
Reporter: Richard Hooton
Date published: 26 August 2008
NO room for manoeuvre. . . residents Julie Hardington and son Daniel (7) with Len and Julie Nuttall
PARKING problems in a Hollinwood street could become a life and death situation, residents fear.
They claim an ambulance struggled for five minutes to squeeze past cars in Jenny Street because of parking congestion.
Resident Leonard Nuttall said: “It took the ambulance seven shunts for it to turn around to get back out. The driver really struggled.
“I don’t know the nature of the call, but if that person had been at death’s door the amount of time it took for the ambulance to turn round they would be dead now.”
A North-West Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed that an ambulance was called to the street at 3.41am last Tuesday to attend an urgent but non life-threatening call for an elderly man who had suffered a wound.
But she added that the crew had not lodged a complaint.
Mr Nuttall’s wife is disabled and he needs to park as close to his house as possible.
He said: “It’s very, very congested on here during the evening. It’s terrible for parking. Quite a few of us get blocked in. Residents are having to park on the footpath on one side of the road.
“There’s a car park in Margaret Street but most of the people who live there won’t use it. They prefer to park in Jenny Street.”
Neighbours say they have asked Oldham Council for residents-only parking permits or for land to be made available for parking but nothing has been done.
Mr Nuttall added: “If the council did what it said it was going to do and put in additional parking bays, it would help tremendously.”
But a spokesman said the council had not received any reports of problems in Jenny Street.
He added: “We recently relaxed waiting restrictions in Chapel Road to allow short-term parking for the businesses in Hollins Road, as parking was previously restricted.
“These restrictions may have caused an increase in parking pressure in Jenny Street, but it should have been relieved.
“If residents would like parking permits, they should write to the traffic section of Unity Partnership which would carry out an assessment”.
