Cockfield resident: I’ll flout ban on parking outside my home

A VILLAGER has vowed to return his car to the front of his home amid a long running row over parking. 

Cockfield’s Stephen Bell was ordered by Cockfield Parish Council to move his 4x4 off an asphalt stretch on Front Street last year.

The 58-year-old, who has lived in the village for more than 30 years, has now spoken out against what he sees is a lack of common sense and said he intends to return his vehicle to the same spot.

“In all the years I have lived here I have always parked a vehicle there and I have never had any hassle whatsoever,” he said.

“I never had any bother until a few years ago.”

Cars and vans outside Joe Simpson’s Butchers, in Cockfield, have proved a bone of contention for residents, the parish council and Mr Simpson for the past three years.

A sign was put up by the parish council this spring saying parking is limited to one hour and overnight parking is not allowed.

Mr Bell moved his 4×4 off the stretch earlier this month but relations have remained strained.

Mr Bell, who manages an office furniture firm, revealed he’d be flouting the parish council’s new rule by moving one of his vehicles back in front of his house once it’s repaired. He said: “People used to use common sense here. It’s causing a situation where people are making dangerous manoeuvres into the road.

“We have never ever said customers to the butcher’s cannot park there.”

Resident Dave Lamb, whose house faces onto the stretch, has also had long running concerns about vehicles on the stretch.

He aired his concerns to the parish council about health and safety and a sign on the village green in May. Mr Lamb had threatened to go to the Ombudsmen over the “discriminatory” sign but last week he said he’d “achieved what he set out to do” and wouldn’t be taking any further action. He added: “I am happy to draw a line underneath it now. I have said from the start I have found that sign discriminatory and fear the health and safety of pedestrians, in particular, is at risk because the stretch has not been risk assessed.

“All car parks should be risk assessed. Not all of that has been done.”

Mr Lamb says the one-hour limit is unfair to residents living on the stretch.

He added: “Given that customers are in the butcher’s shop for, on average, 15 to 20 minutes, and residents park overnight, how would you read that as a resident?

“I did not say I want everyone to go because if they go, I have to go – which is counterproductive.”

Questions over the ownership and responsibility of the stretch of Tarmac have rumbled on for decades with Raby Estates, Durham County Council, Mr Simpson and Cockfield Parish Council all staking a claim to at least part of it. The vice chairman of Cockfield Parish Council, Cllr Neville Singleton, told this month’s meeting the parking problems had died down in recent weeks.

But Mr Lamb said the number of bollards near the land was “squeezing everyone out”.

“Cars were double parked across my house – they were reversing out and taking out the bollards,” added Mr Lamb.

“It’s treating this area differently to the Post Office or the chemist – there is no consistency in the way they deal with things.

“It’s supposed to be home of Jeremiah Dixon but at the moment it’s the home of bollards and parking signs.”