Residents of a village in Henfield are battling parking enforcement company One Parking Solution saying they're being "intimidated" by new restrictions within their estate.
According to residents' spokesman Martin Jones, parking enforcement was introduced into the Bishops Park Barratt Homes estate, made up of 172 homes, on May 1st of this year by First Port, the managing agent of the estate.
Since then, says Jones, this "aggressive" company has been "using intimidation tactics with signs being put up facing in towards peoples homes, enforcement officers roaming the estate several times a day and even issuing a ticket at 03.00am."
Jones, along with the members of his residents' group, say they attempted to speak to First Port about removing the "totally unnecessary" restrictions "but to no avail".
However, according to Jones, Conservative councillor for Horsham District Council, Josh Potts, is also "taking up the fight" in support of the village.
"There are residents on this estate who are sadly battling life threatening / ending illnesses and they are being impacted by the parking enforcement as you are not allowed to park on our estate without a valid permit.
"Neither of the companies involved are prepared to wavier this requirement for home carers but, instead, say they have to provide, in advance, the car details and registration to First Port who will create a white list.
"How is this even morally acceptable? The stress these poor families are under is huge and is only compounded by this disgraceful act from Barratts / First Port and One parking Solution."
"We are a small village within the heart of Sussex, not some inner city estate riddle with illegal parking. (We want to) go back to what should be a peaceful village estate."
One Parking Solution was contacted and responded with "no comment".
A spokesperson for the First Port, the property management company, said:
“Unfortunately there are frequent cases of hazardous parking and roads being blocked for emergency vehicle access at Bishops Park, which we have to address for the safety of all our residents.
"The decision to apply parking enforcement measures has not been taken lightly and has been a regular topic of conversation since 2020 including within the meeting held in August 2020. All residents received a letter from us in December 2020 flagging concerns about unsafe parking and were told that a review would be taking place in March 2021 to see if parking measures were needed.
"Since then, we have been working closely with the Residents’ Management Company to find a practical and fair solution that will keep everyone at the development safe. We know there are residents in support of these measures, but we will continue to monitor the impact of them and work with residents to address any concerns.”
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