A Ruddington pub boss says he was ‘shocked’ that Parish Councillors did not wish to renew a popular, long-running scheme to provide much needed extra parking in our village centre.
To address the increasing difficulty in finding a space, an agreement was reached back in 2014 between Ruddington Parish Council (RPC) and The White Horse Inn that the left hand side of their car park could be used by village shoppers from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. This has been the case until recently – when RUDDINGTON.info was alerted by readers to a new “Customers Only” chalkboard sign which appeared at the entrance {pictured top}. It was also noted that the wall plaques indicating the extra public parking, commissioned and funded by RPC, had been taken down.
White Horse owner Andy Hunt explains: “We provided a new lease for the left hand side of the car park to the Council, as before, and they have declined our offer that was very similar to the previous one. Now, unfortunately, we have had to ask people only to use the car park when using the pub.”
An RPC spokesperson told us: “The lease that the Parish Council had with the White Horse came to an end April this year. Parish Council discussed a new lease but decided not to go forward with it at the November meeting. It was not appropriate to discuss this in the open part of the meeting as it concerned the financial details with a private company.”
The Council does not offer a specific reason for its unexpected decision not to renew. However, it has said that neither the reduction in the number of available parking spaces at the pub (which originally happened during ‘lockdown’, due to the addition of a new outdoor seating area) nor the unavailability of its Car Park when the village is at its busiest – during our monthly market days – featured in the reasons for it not entering into a new lease.
Mr Hunt says: “We understand the issues of parking that villagers face and were shocked that the Council didn’t want to continue the relationship that we had for the last eight years.”
Former Ruddington Councillor Marilyn Robinson remembers: “Originally the Parish Council paid for the resurfacing of the whole car park at a cost of £8k. This secured the 20 parking spaces that were allocated to the Parish Council. This agreement was for 8 years and ended in April this year.
A further lease of the car park spaces has not been renewed. I don’t know why! It would be interesting to know how much the White Horse were asking to renew the lease?”
It’s not just Ruddington shoppers who are losing out, either. One of the volunteers at the Framework Knitters’ Museum reveals: “I used to direct visitors to park there, as bays have a two hour limit. Their car park is also the fire muster point for the Museum. I have messaged the Parish Council to ask about progress on the demolition of the old youth centre, as I understand that there was a possibility of having additional parking on that site.”
RPC confirms: “Plans for the development of the old Youth and Community Centre site include provision of new car parking spaces.”
Meantime, as the number of residents in Ruddington continues to increase, it seems the problem of finding a parking space in our village centre during busy periods is only set to get worse.
