Lazy parkers have come under fire over continuing congestion around Arbroath Infirmary.
Despite the creation of a new £90,000 facility to ease the squeeze for drivers in the area, some hospital visitors are ignoring vacant spaces and parking on the entrance to the car park.
Councillors have now agreed new parking restrictions, which they hope will ease the situation but say they do not go far enough and are asking roads chiefs to keep Rosemount Road “on the radar”.
Around a decade after first being mooted, the new car park was opened at the end of last year in a bid to reduce the frequent gridlock in the area.
The latest restrictions will prohibit parking along parts of Rosemount Round and on to Infirmary Brae but town councillor David Fairweather led criticism of drivers who can’t be bothered to park across the road from the hospital, where an increase in the range of clinics gradually placed greater pressure on available parking space.
“Even with the new car park, people seem to be too lazy to go in there, they park on the road and it is still congested,” he said.
“I’m not understanding why we have taken the restrictions just a little bit out of the car park, when I think they should be all the way down to Alexandra Place.”
Mr Fairweather said he hoped to see the newly-agreed restrictions in place quickly, before roads officials begin to investigate the possibility of further orders to extend the reach of the double yellow lines along Rosemount Road.
“I don’t want to delay this because it has already taken a long time to get to this point but we have to move as quickly as we can,” he said.
“It’s a long time on from the car park being added and people are going to be scratching their heads about why it has taken so long to get parking restrictions down.”
Fellow Arbroath councillor Alex King commented: “This is just pure laziness on the part of some people.
“I have seen cars parked right up to the entrance of the car park when there are spaces in it, just because there are no double yellow lines there at the moment.
“I think we should look at putting the double yellow lines along the whole of the south side, while leaving some on-street parking for the residents there but extending them right down Infirmary Brae.
“I accept these proposed restrictions are an improvement but we have to keep the situation around the infirmary very much on the radar.”
Arbroath independent Bob Spink noted: “I have seen situations where there are spaces in the car park and yet there are still no spaces on the street.”
In Brechin, restrictions are to be put on part of Airlie Street following concerns about the difficulties faced by school buses because of congestion around the junction with Argyll Street.
A previous proposal resulted in objections from nearby residents but following a series of discussions, including roads department dialogue with police, officials say the current bus stop location in Argyll Street is the most appropriate in terms of safety for children and councillors have rubber-stamped new double yellow lines for a stretch of the road opposite the junction.