ALTON Town Council is seeking to address the ongoing problem of parking at Anstey Park by remarking the bays and installing additional dragons’ teeth and removable lockable bollards to bring some form of order to the situation.

Members present at the town council’s open spaces committee meeting last Wednesday heard that there was a continuing problem of unauthorised parking and “pleasure” driving on the grassy areas at the park despite the installation of ‘no parking’ areas flagged up by dragons’ teeth.

The fear is that with increased usage of recreational facilities, especially by children and young people, on foot and on bikes, together with dog walkers and other members of the public, indiscriminate parking and anti-social behaviour by drivers is putting lives at risk.

In a report to the committee, town clerk Leah Cohney said that given increased usage of the site “the safety of all users of the facility is of paramount importance, as is the provision of parking facilities”.

The pressure for parking is exacerbated at the weekends when both rugby and football matches and training take place.

While optimisation of the hard surface parking areas in the park is shortly to be addressed by new line markings, discussions are ongoing to identify whether additional overflow parking can be accommodated in the park.

In the meantime, councillors have agreed to the installation of additional dragons’ teeth to try to reduce the number of vehicles being driven onto the grassed areas, to include removable lockable bollards at key access points. The project has been costed at £3,685, to be funded by developers’ section 106 contributions.

In agreeing to this, councillors recognised that when ground conditions permit some authorised parking will be permitted on the grass at the lower end of Anstey Park, below the 3G football pitch.

Councillors also acknowledged the £415 cost of remarking the main car park area, to cover up to 42 bays, which will be reconfigured to optimise the space.

Mrs Cohney thought the re-marking of the whole area, to include bays adjacent to the children’s playground, Energique and the rugby club, could be expected to come to less than £800 and it was decided to look at this, as well as inviting the Royal British Legion to come on board and include their car park in the scheme, which would minimise their costs.

She added that any potholes in parking areas were filled in prior to the work being undertaken.