'It's isolating vulnerable people' - family of Banbury resident in retirement complex say new 20-minute parking limit is unfair

Belinda Herring’s mother, Ann, has lived at the Spencer Court retirement housing complex on Britannia Road for around 15 years.

The Herring family was happy with how the complex was run until a new parking limit was recently introduced.

Previously, visitors to the home or resident’s carers were allowed to park at the complex for as long as they wanted by signing in on a tablet in the reception, using their car registration number.

However, due to members of the public not being connected to the home using the limited space car park, a new system was brought into place that now limits visitors to only 20 minutes of parking.

Belinda, who cares for her mother, said: “My mother is 86 and doesn’t drive a car, so she doesn’t have a parking permit at the home.

“When I visit her now, I have to park elsewhere in town and walk to the home because the 20-minute time limit is not long enough for me to provide the necessary care for her.

“I understand their reason for bringing in the parking time limit, but unfortunately it’s resulted in isolating vulnerable people, as visitors are put off from visiting the home, and it may well lead to carers rushing their jobs.”

Belinda and her family acknowledge that members of the public did sometimes use the car park, but they say there was nothing wrong with the old system of signing in and the new system is ‘unfair’.

She said: “All the new system is doing is making people not want to visit their relatives because they will receive a £100 fine if they overstay the 20-minute limit.

“My mother also has carers come in three times a day, and we now feel anxious that the carers will be rushing their jobs and my mother will not receive the care that she needs.”

The Spencer Court complex is home to around 75 residents and only has around 26 parking places that were previously used on a first-come, first-served basis.

First Point, which manages the Spencer Court retirement home, is now looking to extend the free parking allowance from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

Belinda said: “There are a lot of vulnerable people in the home, and several of them have families who travel from afar to visit them for up to four hours at a time; the 20-minute time limit is unfair.”

“Even 30 minutes is not enough time; if they gave us an hour, then we could work with that.”

A spokesperson for First Point said: “In consultation with homeowners at Spencer Court, a decision was taken to introduce a new parking system at the development.

“This followed concerns from homeowners that members of the public, with no connection to the development, were parking their cars in the

designated resident parking spaces.

“This was not a decision taken lightly; however, the majority of homeowners support these measures. We will continue to monitor the system’s impact and remain committed to working with residents to address any concerns.”