Parking issues are ‘one of the highest causes of police calls in Petworth’

PCSO Andrea Oakley told the meeting on Thursday (February 21) that in the last three months, most calls had either been about parking, road traffic accidents or cows and horses on the road.

Roger Hanauer raised the issue of parking at Hampers Green the previous weekend from vistors to Petworth House when an overflow car park was unavailable and asked about the possibility of police moving on cars.

PCSO Oakley said police could do little to help if car owners could not be tracked down but suggested that if cars were parked in such a way as to prevent a fire engine getting through, Midhurst fire station could flyer cars to raise awareness of safety issues.

It was decided that the town council would ask the National Trust if it could place wardens around the area to help prevent problematic parking.

Overall, the meeting heard that in the year to date, Petworth had had 345 crimes, an increase of 83 incidents from the previous year.

Of those, 57 were antisocial behaviour, (an increase of 11), 45 were criminal damage (an increase of 1), 41 were burglaries (a decrease of four) and 91 were vehicle related crimes (an increase of 59 incidents).

She said the large number of vehicle crimes had been due to a spate of beauty spot car park break-ins carried out by a ‘well-known’ group, who were now ‘safely at Her Majesty’s pleasure’.

Chairman Chris Kemp asked about drug issues in the town but PSCO Oakley said she was only familiar with her own area in Bognor and habitual users would be known by local officers.