'It's going to make things harder': What residents think about Southsea's new parking zone

More than 35 roads around Albert Road in Southsea are now off-limits between the hours of 4.30pm and 6.30pm unless you have a residents’ permit.

Known as the MD zone, the area stretches from Nelson Road and The Thicket in the west, to Lawrence Road in the east and from Campbell Road down to Worthing Road.

And although Albert Road is at the centre of the zone it is not included - two-hour restrictions still apply.

The zone has affected residents and business owners, garnering mixed reactions since its arrival on Monday this week.

Albert Road resident Rhiannon Rees, 36, said: 'I find the new restrictions annoying as it's already hard enough to park as it is and more restrictions will make it worse.'

Dwayne Bradshaw, 32, who lives in Southsea, agreed. 'As a businessman I drive and have already spent so much on parking,' he said.

'It's going to make things a lot harder for us. It's been bad for as long as I've been in Southsea which is two years so far and it's already restrictive, so further restrictions will be even more detrimental.'

 But Max Anderson, 26, who has run Andy's Maritime Antiques in St Vincent Road with his dad for six months, said: 'It has definitely helped us a lot. At the start people kept parking on our dropped kerb. We had to leave signs out to try to stop them.

'We were worried at first that it would mean customers had trouble parking but actually there are more spaces now.'

David Knight, 72, of Haslemere Road, has suffered from displacement parking due to zones. He said: 'We are just outside this new zone and we already feel the effects of the other zones but this could make it worse. It's wonderful to have a zone if you're living in one but if you're just outside one it's not very good at all. They need to make it equal all over the city.'

Portsmouth City Council is looking at feedback on the neighbouring ME zone and recommendations will be taken to a traffic and transportation meeting in October