The mayor of Penryn has said she will push for less parking in Permarin Road after residents raised their concerns at a public meeting.

The town council has said it will look into the possibility of adding double yellow lines to one section of the road following recent incidents in which emergency vehicles have failed to get through.

During one emergency call in August, a two year old girl suffering a seizure had to be carried half the length of the road after an ambulance was unable to get past parked cars.

The little girl's aunt spoke at the meeting, and said: “I'm deeply concerned that should she have another seizure, or should there be a fire in somebody's house, there's no way an emergency vehicle could get through.

“I drive a Galaxy and half the time it's a nightmare; I'm opening windows, pushing in wing mirrors.

“We had a fire before and the engine struggled [to get through].”

In Thursday night's meeting, residents were near unanimous in calling for double yellow lines running alongside the current Permarin car park, and several suggested the unused green space opposite the site should also be considered for more parking spaces.

One Permarin resident, Scott Crocker, said part of the problem was Cornwall Council's “blinkered” policy of making every car park pay and display, even if that meant nobody used them.

He said: “If you go to Commercial Road car park most days it's absolutely empty, because no-one will pay £4 to park when they can use Permarin Road.

“Cornwall Council need to stop using car parks as a cash cow to be milked at every single opportunity.

Mark James, community network manager for Cornwall Council, representing Cornwall Council, said: “Parking is a cash cow, but that offsets council tax. It supplements council tax money.”

However, in response Mr Crocker said: “I don't believe it is supplementing council tax. If you're spending any money on Commercial Road you must be running it at a loss.”

Ben Dickinson, highways manager for Cormac Solutions, said he was “all for” double yellow lines, and was hoping that there would be a good consensus on the issue.

However, he warned that it was “not simply a case of getting them put on the road.”

Before that, he would need to get a traffic regulation order in place, which would make the markings legally enforceable, and before that could happen the council would need to undertake a public consultation.

He also said it was important for anyone who supports the proposal for double yellow lines to make their opinion heard when it came to a consultation, as if there were objections and residents did not make their support known it would fail.

He told the meeting that the minimum cost of getting a traffic order through was £4,000, although it could rise quickly if the process became drawn out due to too many objections.

He added that Cornwall Council had given him “precisely zero” in his budget for new traffic orders but he could make sure that the next time a project in the area requires an order, he will ask for Permarin Road to be added on.

A common complaint seemed to be that locals are unable to park in the town as the streets and the car park are used by people working in Falmouth who find it cheaper to leave their cars in Penryn before catching a bus to their destination.

It was also suggested that high parking charges at the Penryn campus meant students were leaving their cars in the town.

Resident Bridget Waters suggested the council look into a residents' parking scheme, either on the road or in Permarin car park. She added that the car park could be used for residents parking, with non-residents having to pay and display.

Mr Dickinson said he “liked the idea of making the car park residents' parking with pay and display for non-residents”, and that he could propose a residents' parking scheme but often people “don't want to pay to park outside their house.”

The town mayor, Councillor Gill Grant, told the meeting: “We fought a long time to have Permarin Road as a free car park. It went back to pay and display.“Cornwall Council decided we could take on the lease and that's why it's free.”

In response to a suggestion that the council takes on the lease of a second car park in Commercial Road, she said “we've considered it,” and added that a second car park would mean motorists' parking being subsidised by other council tax payers.

She also said that double yellow lines were a separate matter from parking spaces, and the main concern was to get the emergency services in, and added “If you get double yellow lines you won't be able to decide who will park there.”

She concluded: “It seems double yellow lines are the hot favourite, and only a small section of road [running from the vehicle entrance of the car park to the bottom of the pedestrian access] needs them.

“The first thing we need to do is a local consultation.”