New parking zone in Portsmouth takes a step forward but campaigners warn '˜it will cripple lives'

It comes as Councillor Jim Fleming today approved plans that will progress one scheme in Cosham but ditched another in the same area.

Now a formal consultation will start with residents over bringing in permits for the area covering Albert Road, Pervin Road and Park Lane.

But long-standing campaigner Barbara Jones, 71, who fought against the MC zone in Southsea, said they always just shift the problem.

Speaking after the meeting, which she did not attend, she said: ‘It will cripple people’s lives.’

Mrs Jones, of Grenville Road, Southsea, added: ‘It shifts the problem into neighbouring streets, then they put their hands up saying “can we have a scheme?” – it ends up shunting the problems from one set of streets to another.’

The decision also came under fire from Liberal Democrat councillor Lee Hunt, who said Cllr Fleming had vowed not to deal with the parking problem in a piecemeal way.

At the meeting Cllr Hunt called for Southsea to get parking zones if Cosham was to do so. He also quizzed Cllr Fleming on why he had vowed to bring in a city-wide plan but was then considering a small scheme. He said: ‘The administration deleted MB and MC and attempted to delete LC in order to create new zones in Cosham and the north.

‘There can be no other explanation as to why you’d deleted them piecemeal and inserted others in the north piecemeal.’

He said the decision was a ‘slap in the face’ for people living in Southsea.

Former Tory traffic boss Cllr Ken Ellcome scrapped MB and MC parking zones in Southsea, due to concerns they were causing parking problems in neighbouring areas.

Jezz Baker, a former councillor and resident in Mulberry Avenue, Cosham, said: ‘They’re not helpful with the majority of people that they affect, they expect with a parking zone that they will get a parking space outside their home.

‘The reality shows the parking zone pushes them to park elsewhere.’

Cllr Jim Fleming said he wanted a long-term solution across the city. But he added the Southsea zones had been introduced early in a ‘political’ move.