NEARLY £13,000 is being spent on yellow lines to stop students and staff at Warwick University parking on the green verges of Kenilworth Road.
All-day parkers have ploughed up stretches of the grass near Gibbet Hill and caused danger to other motorists as they bump on and off the carriageway.
The university has tried to stop the practice – along a road once described as the most attractive gateway to a city in England – but notices pinned to windscreens have been ignored.
Despite the obvious damage to Coventry City Council-owned land and the potential for traffic accidents, the local authority and police say they have not been able to prosecute because there are no signs or yellow lines present warning the motorists that parking is prohibited.
One regular user of the road, says she has been astonished by the parkers’ recklessness.
“I was stunned driving up the Kenilworth Road towards the Gibbet Hill roundabout, when a car on the opposite side of the road mounted the verge and drove down the footpath towards me trying to find a space to park that has not been completely churned up by other member of the university already parked there.”
Although the lines will be on the road the ban will also apply to the grass verges. Offenders risk fines of up to £1,000 and three penalty points if found to be causing danger.
The problem is mainly confined to a 100 metre stretch from the crest of Gibbet Hill on the Coventry-bound carriageway.
But the yellow lines will be painted along about a mile on both sides, from the Coventry border near Cryfield Grange Road to the A45 Fletchamstead Highway.
The parking problems around the university are not confined to Kenilworth Road. Staff and students are prepared to park up to a mile away rather than pay campus car-parking fees.
Report by Steve Chiltern
