Angry Malpas residents say they’re at their wits’ end with ‘lazy’ drivers turning their high street into gridlock twice a day.
Parking on the small main street in the village has been a bone of contention for years, but as villagers brace themselves for an influx of 250 homes to be built, the problem is set to get worse.
A concerned resident who has lived in Malpas for 11 years, but does not wish to be named, told The Chronicle:
“There are two major concerns felt by the village. The first is the amount of people pulling out recklessly at the junction of Chester Road, and the second is the amount of drivers coming down Church Street and causing a traffic jam.
“Twice a day during rush hour, it’s like gridlock.
“It’s bad enough now but can you imagine how much worse the traffic will get when 250 houses are built?”
He added: “Drivers are lazy – so many park down the high street, even though there are car parks which can hold around 60 cars each. It is just huge levels of laziness.
“I always say driving in Malpas is the synergy between ignorance and arrogance.”
The resident said that the situation could be helped if yellow lines were installed on the high street to stop people parking
“I understand there are houses on one side and shops on the other. But something needs to be done about this,” he added.
“If there were parking restrictions at certain times, twice a day, so you can’t park on both sides of the road, that would help enormously with traffic levels.
“When you park on the junction of High Street and Church Street, which causes a total blind spot and is just so dangerous.”
And other villagers have taken to Facebook to air their views on the situation.
One wrote: “I think the solution would be to place a single yellow line system on the Jubilee Hall side of the High Street, possibly extended around the both corners of the junction and have no parking from 8.30-9.30am and 3-5pm so as not to affect local grocery businesses too much.
“There are car parks that can be used but laziness is the problem.”
Another said: “If there were yellow lines down one side, and I mean all the way down so there was no double-parking, the problem would more or less disappear .”
Another resident agreed, writing: “Too many new houses are being built in the village, bringing too much local traffic to the village, and people who don't understand rural driving courtesy.
“They all want to drive like they do in the city with no respect for other road users, and driving standards are decreasing rapidly all over the country.”
However, a spokesperson for Cheshire West and Chester Council said: “We recently carried out a parking survey in Malpas and over the next couple of months an experimental waiting order will be introduced in the high street.
“Parking in between the existing restrictions will be limited to 45 minutes from Monday-Saturday from 8am-6pm.
“We are speaking with the parish council regarding the signage for this proposal. The experiment will be monitored so that we can gauge its results.”
