After years of campaigning, Brighton and Hove has got a park and ride – only these ones are not sanctioned by anyone.
Residents in Woodingdean and Rottingdean have complained that dozens of people are leaving their cars in their streets for free before jumping on the bus to go to work or the shops.
Others ignore restrictions and use local car parks, taking up spaces outside shops and community facilities intended for the less mobile.
With the situation not getting any better, locals have questioned if there will ever be a way of sorting it out once and for all.
Woodingdean ward councillor Dee Simson said: “It has been going on for ages.
“The community centre car park and the car park further up Warren Road on the Downs are the ones which I get most complaints about.
“It means that people with mobility issues cannot get to the community centre.
“We have asked for signs to be installed warning that no one can park for more than four hours but they get ignored.
“I do not know what the solution is.
“Parking is hard enough to enforce in the city centre never mind in the suburbs.”
Rottingdean ward councillor Lynda Hyde said the same was happening in the streets near the A259 coast road in Rottingdean.
Coun Hyde blamed the high parking prices in the city centre which forced people to think of ways they could avoid the tariffs.
A council spokeswoman said: “There are signs in place reminding people that they cannot park for more than four hours.”
She added that not all the car parks in the area belonged to the local authority which meant it could not enforce the restrictions.
The idea of a formal park and ride has been discussed in the city for years.
However councillors agreed in January not to include the idea in the draft City Plan, which maps out development in the area for the next 20 years.
This still has to be signed off by a government inspector.
At the time, Ian Davey, the council’s transport spokesman, said: “Park and Ride is simply undeliverable.
“In times of austerity it's an expensive and inefficient use of public money particularly in an era of declining car use.”
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