Penryn industrial estate parking is "beyond a joke" (From Falmouth Packet)

Penryn industrial estate parking is "beyond a joke"

10:40am Monday 18th February 2013 in Falmouth/Penryn

Parking on the Kernick Industrial Estate is getting “beyond a joke” Penryn Town Council heard this week.

Kevin Boyes from Kernow Coatings told councillors last Monday that access to one of his firm’s factories on the industrial estate was becoming so difficult that they were “in danger of having trucks not come back to us.”

He lays the blame squarely at the door of students, who are using the estate as free overspill parking, the council heard.

Mr Boyes said: “The university this year seems to have taken off in leaps and bounds.

“We have had countless occasions this past year when we have truck drivers from abroad who cannot leave our premises - It’s become beyond a joke.”

Although parking was never ideal in Kernick, cars have started parking on both sides of the road in the past 12 months leaving access to the firm’s factories almost impossible, Mr Boyes said.

“It’s a recipe for disaster, it’s almost insane the way that parking is now – and it’s not illegal,” he said.

“All we are looking for is to make sure we have access for our vehicles. We can’t have vehicles not being able to get into our property.”

The problem is further compounded by hazardous and flammable deliveries that cannot be easily unloaded elsewhere, he added.

Cornwall councillor for the area Mary May said a second consultation on yellow lines for the industrial estate was underway after an earlier scheme had been signed off in September.

But town councillor Martin Mullins sounded dismayed at the thought of more parking restrictions.

“Yellows lines never solve a problem, it just moves it somewhere else,” he said.

“We are going to have that same conversation with someone else.”