A COUNCILLOR has renewed her calls for a continental solution to a Winchester housing estate's parking problems.

Eileen Berry said the issue was so bad Weeke residents were leaving their cars on grassed central reservations in Fromond and Taplings Road.

Parking problems, she said, had been exacerbated by Waitrose employees leaving their vehicles on the estate. The issue has prompted Winchester City Council (WCC) to propose installing double yellow lines.

But Cllr Berry wants to go one step further and install angled parking in Fromond Road's central area.

"I'm calling for residents to have their parking arrangements sorted out," she said. "As it is they can't ever get near to their doors.

"They have to get where they can get - sometimes that is on the central reservations. Now with Waitrose their employees have to have somewhere to park and the situation is a lot worse.

"Every resident that has lived on Weeke is saying exactly the same as me - why can't we arrange our car parking like the French?"

Neville Crisp, transport manager at WCC, said Cllr Berry's solution would be investigated but that the scheme might prove too expensive.

He confirmed that double yellow lines would be installed early in February if city councillors do not object by next Thursday (January 14).

But Trussell Crescent resident Ruth Harrison attacked proposals to put lines in her street saying parking was not an issue.

"I think it's utterly ludicrous," she said. "Where are our visitors going to park? Why stop residents and tenants parking here?"

Mr Crisp said a wider consultation on parking in Weeke - addressing the possibility of permit parking - would be launched in the spring.

Moves are also afoot to help independent traders in Stoney Lane. Cllr Berry said Waitrose and Costa customers were taking up some of the street parking, meaning less for the parade of shops opposite.

Mr Crisp said officers were looking into offering 30 minutes of free parking and then introducing charges thereafter. At present vehicles are allowed free parking for an hour.

"This would help the short stay people to keep the street clear and then people going into Waitrose are more likely to use the underground car parking."

Mr Crisp added that Hampshire County Council is also considering installing a pelican crossing linking the shops with the footpath running behind Waitrose.