Row about parking outside butcher’s shop escalates

A SPAT about parking and access near a Teesdale butchers shop has boiled over once again.
Vehicles left outside Simpson’s Butchers, in Cockfield, have attracted a slew of complaints in the past few years.
However, a new sign erected by the parish council on the nearby village green hasn’t gone down well with one Front Street couple.
Dave and Michelle Lamb told council members the sign saying motorists could park for a maximum of one hour was “discriminatory”.
Mr Lamb said: “This has been nibbling at my heels for the past nine years. I have always said I am fully willing to move my van off there if there was a show of good faith – only to find the general public come on and block entry to my door.
“I cannot even get into my house because of customers blocking entry.”
He added: “I have explained it’s village green and we do not have a legal right to park there but we do have a right to access our property.”
Mr Lamb said he had CCTV footage of flat bed trucks reversing into his wall and damaging his planters as well as three “serious incidents” – including one where a car reversed into a pushchair.
Ignorant drivers had also been caught discarding half-eaten sandwiches from their windows, he added.
Meanwhile, Mrs Lamb saw safety as the most pressing concern.
She said: “We need to look at the type of vehicles coming onto there.
“When you speak to these people they are quite rude and abrupt. The police said they cannot get involved.”
Cockfield Parish Council are guardians of village greens, but Raby Estates claims ownership of much of those.
Claims have been staked for the patch of land in front of Simpson’s Butchers for more than 50 years with responsibility too-ing and fro-ing between Raby Estates, the Simpson family, the parish council and the former Teesdale District Council since the 1960s. Parish chairwoman Cllr Brenda Singleton told the Lambs the council had gone through the “proper procedure” with the sign.
“We certainly didn’t do it as a favour to the butcher’s shop,” said Cllr Singleton.
She added: “There is no malice in it whatsoever – we were told we were doing it right.”
Cllr Neville Singleton said: “Where the vehicles are parked is dangerous – you are parking sensibly near your own home which is fair enough.”
The chairwoman said vehicles had been parking in front of the butchers’ “since she was young” and the council didn’t have the resources to stop vehicles encroaching on the green.
Mr Lamb maintained that the sign gave a discriminatory impression.
He added: “It’s saying parking for one hour only, who parks for one hour or less? – customers of the butchers.
“It says no parking overnight – who parks overnight? We do.”
Mrs Lamb wanted to know why customers could not park around the back of the butcher’s shop.
She added: “He has a fantastic area not 100 yards from its entrance.”
The parish council agreed to have another look at the sign and the area.
Mr Lamb said he would be in touch with the county council about the sign.