New bid to end Felpham parking problem

The solution is being sought to stop cars lining Summerley Lane when the adjoining King George V playing field is busy.

The situation is worse at weekends when the playing field’s football pitches are being used.

Vehicles line both sides of the road as well as parking on the wide verge next to the playing field.

Arun District Council, which owns the open space, has asked Felpham Parish Council if it would be willing to help pay towards creating new parking spaces.

Among the ideas put forward from Arun, based on those discussed previously, is to allow parking on the playing field verge along Summerley Lane or to create a car park on the playing field.

Parish councillors agreed with chairman Cllr Paul English who said: “In principle, we should say we want something to be done whether it’s on the field or the roadside.”

But he said he was still angry a previous attempt to improve the situation four years ago – to which the parish councillors had committed £10,000 – was belatedly scrapped by West Sussex County Council. Some 200 people had then been in favour of parking along Summerley Lane.

“The difficulty with the parking solution comes about with do we have it on the field or outside.

“If it’s on the field, it will be locked 99 per cent of the time. If it’s open at weekends, how do we stop travellers getting in then?” he said.

“But that comes down to talks and we have to keep an open mind. If we keep that, we have to put this matter to the community.”

Parish and county council member George Blampied said: “If anything is going to happen, it will take more than a year. We have to decide which way we are going to go.”

Cllr David Edwards said: “I like the idea, as most people did, of car parking based along the side of Summerley Lane.

“The consultation was incredibly in favour of parking going down the left-hand side of the road.

“If we put the car park inside the field, how are we going to stop people we don’t want going in there?”