By Megan FeatherstonePARENTS are outraged by the action taken by a licensee to stop them using a pub car park while dropping their children off at school.
Chris Holroyd from the Kershaw House Inn, Luddenden-foot, Halifax, has tol
d parents of children from nearby Luddenden Dene School that he will be introducing a permit scheme and vehicles without permits will be clamped from Saturday, October 14.
Mr Holroyd issued the parents with a leaflet detailing the £25-a-month scheme or a £50 one-off entrance fee on Monday. It also explained that if cars were immobilised a £100 release fee would be charged.
Mum Claire Nelson, from Wheatley, Halifax, uses the car park each day when dropping off her son Archie at nursery.
She said: "It is so petty. People only use the car park for about five minutes. I could understand if people were parking there all day but everyone is gone by 9.05am and the pub is not even open at that time.
"There is a lot of bad feeling and everyone thinks it is pathetic."
Mrs Nelson, who is seven months pregnant, said parking is very limited around the school because it is in a residential area.
There are yellow zig-zag lines preventing parking directly outside the school but many parents park on the roadside.
Mrs Nelson added: "My main concern is that if people can't use the pub car park it is going to get dangerous and someone will get killed."
One mother, who did not wish to be named, said when Mr Holroyd previously closed the pub car park by parking a vehicle across the entrance, it caused chaos.
She said: "I empathise with the landlord and I feel bad when I park there but I want to keep my child and other people's children safe and parking off the road is safer.
"I wish the school could come to some agreement with the landlord."
Mr Holroyd says he approached the school with the idea of renting the car park but they declined.
He says he now has no choice but to introduce the new rules. He said are often up to 40 vehicles in the car park, blocking access for deliveries to the pub and a shop which has recently opened on the grounds.
Mr Holroyd said: "We are fed up of parents using the car park. They never use the pub.
"We are only charging around 80p a day which is cheaper than most car parks. Most of them only live 500 yards away anyway."
On Wednesday, two days after Mr Holroyd issued the notice, there were less than five cars on the pub land.
Luddenden Dene School did not wish to comment on the situation.
On Tuesday the Courier reported that drivers using Grange Dene Medical Centre's car park in Mytholmroyd were clamped by notorious wheel-clamping firm Carstoppers.
The Courier's latest online vote asked if yellow lines around schools was the best way to tackle the school run. The vote was evenly split, with 53 per cent disagreeing with the yellow-line policy and 47 per cent giving it their backing.
megan.featherstone@halifaxcourier.co.uk
