Blockade on free parking

A housing site where no development has taken place for 12 years will be closed off to parked cars at a cost of £2,000.

The land on St Mary’s Way used to be the site of deck-access flats, and has been earmarked for a flagship housing development by Oldham Council since 2003. But developers Gleeson backed out last year.

The land, which has been used as a car park since the Jespersen Street flats were demolished in 1997, will now be tidied and cleared of bushes.

Jespersen Street and adjacent Ben Brierley Way will then get double yellow lines, plus bollards and barriers to stop cars driving on to the grassed areas.

A council report says the derelict site is now an overgrown eyesore, adding: “The existing roads attract parked cars and due to the isolated location there have been incidents of vandalism. The parked cars, used by visitors to the town centre, also cause an annoyance and present a safety risk to local residents.”

The money has been freed up for the Streetscene team despite the expenditure freeze on all council departments, and plans were approved by regeneration department officer John Mitchell this week.

But one regular parker was not impressed. She said: “Is this to drive more people on to car parks and make more money?

“This is really going to affect me and a lot of my friends who park here.

Another said: “They have been planning to develop here for at least four years while I’ve been parking here and nothing has happened. I’ll just wait and see.”