A PETITION from residents and business owners over the future of a controversial car park in Saltaire has been handed to Bradford Council.

The local authority had run the car park at Oastler Road, Saltaire, under lease from 2004, offering 20 minutes’ free parking, but earlier this year the lease was taken over by Birmingham-based Smart Parking.

Since then, many angry drivers had been hit with £100 fines, after not realising Smart Parking required them to log their car’s registration for the free 20-minute stay.

Smart Parking was given a deadline of November 30, to “close” the Oastler Road site by the Council after the land was declared a public highway, and therefore its use as a paid-for car park was unlawful.

The company’s equipment and signs were fully removed from the site on November 27, leaving shoppers free to park there without paying.

Although Smart Parking has not been issuing fines since October, it is thought that many motorists have still been buying tickets.

A petition was handed over about the ongoing issue to the Council at its meeting on Tuesday. It will now be passed to the local authority’s executive for consideration.

Victoria Jenkins, a Shipley resident, spoke to councillors at the meeting, branding the fines imposed by Smart Parking as “immoral but not illegal”.

She said she canvassed 35 businesses near the car park on Saturday to get their opinion, who said a car park was definitely needed there to encourage shoppers to use their facilities. They added Smart Parking should not be allowed to re-apply to run the site.

She said: “We want to ensure that whatever replaces it will be fit for purpose and fair on the people parking there and the businesses and other services in the area.”

She also called on the Council to apply for the site to be legally designated as a car park. She also wants a 30-minute period for drivers to have free parking and rules for fining to allow grace periods in line with industry standards and to stop the use of automatic vehicle recognition unless the pursuit of pricing and rules of infringement is agreed by the Council and the majority of business owners nearby.

Councillor Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) asked what measures then Council was taking to re-establish a fully operational car park at the site and for it to be managed responsibly.

In response, Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw, the Council’s portfolio holder for regeneration, planning and transport portfolio, said it was supportive of a return to a car park and was pushing for the site’s operators to come to the table

Smart Parking was approached for comment by the Telegraph & Argus but no response was received.