Snow Joke! Council car parks chaos

5.13.00pm GMT Tue 26th Jan 2010

Maidstone Council park and ride and pay and display car parks were plunged into danger during the busiest shopping weekend of the year, leading up to Christmas.

Local Lib Dem Councillors have said that the Conservative-run Council's decision to axe the popular dedicated park and ride car park attendants was a contributory factor towards total failure to clear snow and ice which led to trapped cars and nasty falls by the public.

High Street Ward Councillor Clive English (Lib Dem) was astonished by the absence of contingency planning and the sluggishness of response by Maidstone Council in relation to their town centre car parks.

He told us "The snow hit late Thursday night so I am amazed that no action was taken to clear and make-safe council car parks in time for the weekend."

He added "The spectacle of trapped cars and members of the public losing their footing was shocking".

The snow and ice situation was so bad in the popular Mote Road council car park on the Saturday following the snowfall that Lib Dem Councillor Tony Harwood pitched in personally with his own shovel to help trapped vehicles escape the chaos!