Practise parking a car? Sorry, but not in our car parks
Learner drivers have been banned from using council-run car parks to practise their manoeuvres – for fear they could run over children.
Driving instructors face being fined up to 65 if caught teaching students how to park their cars in Gosport.
The ban has been in force for years, but council officers have only recently launched a campaign to stamp it out.
Furious instructors – who also cannot use private car parks – say their students could fail their driving tests, as they have nowhere to practise pulling in to bays, which is an essential part of the exam.
Steven Bonnick, of Platinum School of Motoring, Gosport, said some instructors were having to sneak into car parks behind the council's back.
'I think they are being really over the top and I can't understand it. They aren't losing any revenue, we are just trying to teach people how to drive,' he said.
'I use the council car parks every day and we aren't in anybody's way, we always pick a quiet corner.
'There's nowhere else we can do it and at the moment we are having to practise when there aren't any council officers around.
'This just seems like really petty bureaucracy to me.'
Gosport is the only council locally that bans driving instructors from its car parks.
Portsmouth, Havant and Fareham have no such ban.
Colin O'Connell, of the Driving Instructors Association, said: 'I feel very sorry for the driving instructors.
'If people can't practise this it will be harder for them to pass their test.'
Gosport council spokeswoman Brenda Brooker said driving instructors had been banned from its car parks due to the possibility of youngsters getting knocked over – despite there being no record of such an incident.
'We launched a high-profile campaign to try and warn them not to use the car parks before kids broke up from school,' she said.
'This is because of health and safety and the fact there could be lots of youngsters in the car parks over the summer.'
But deputy council leader Peter Chegwyn, who is in charge of car parks, did not agree with the ban. He said: 'I don't have any problem with learner drivers practising in our car parks and I've not had any complaints about it.'
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
