Change means Chichester car club will have to book and pay a fee to meet in car park

The changes, which involved formalising the rules when it came to using car parks to host events, were given the nod by members of the cabinet on Tuesday (April 16).

The process was started after someone complained about the Manhood Classics car club, which had been meeting at East Beach car park, in Selsey, for 13 years.

The council had, apparently, been unaware of this.

Club members had been paying to park their cars at the site for two-and-a-half hours once a month.

Now the club will have to apply to park there and pay a fee.

Co-founder Les Payne said the change to the policy ‘posed many questions’ for the group.

He said: “We have always maintained that we have met in the East Beach car park to get refreshments and meet like-minded friends at the beach kiosk, paying car parking fees when the charges applied.

“Some people would also look at each other’s cars which, of course, encouraged the general public to do so as well.

“And enjoyment was had by all.”

Mr Payne warned that the meet-ups at East Beach would be ‘totally unviable’ if the club was told to pay hundred pounds in hire fees, administration fees and set-up fees.

He suggested that an annual charge would be more fair.

A report to the cabinet said the charges would vary ‘according to the level of time or resource provided by officers’.

It added that events would only be allowed to use a certain percentage of each car park and the charges would be calculated to consider whether the authority would lose income on the number of spaces taken.

Jess Brown-Fuller, cabinet member for culture & events, said Manhood Classics had been a ‘victim of its own success’.

As for Mr Payne’s suggestion that an annual charge should be considered, she said: “There are costs associated with the use of car parks and the expectation is that these are covered by the event or activity organiser.

“Where an event or activity is approved on a recurring basis, the expectation would be that the application will reflect this and would not need to be a separate application each time.

“However, an upper limit to the number of events would be applied to this.”

The council owns and manages 31 car parks across the district.