Castle Cary commuters parked on pavement find cars vandalised

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Scores of commuters whose cars were parked on the pavement returned to find their vehicles had been vandalised.

Drivers who parked in Station Road - by Castle Cary railway station in Somerset - on 21 and 22 March reported scratches and wing mirrors being broken off.

Police said they were aware of the vandalism as well as the parking issues and had handed out 57 penalty notices to vehicles parked in Station Road.

Great Western Railway has said a car park extension will open in the summer.

Castle Cary station car park is currently half closed to make space for engineering works equipment which the transport provider said had "exacerbated the issue".

Somerset Highways said double yellow lines would be painted along Station Road within the next two weeks.

Estate agent Chris Good said the parking issues were partly due to an influx of people moving into the area.

"It's one of the biggest draws for Castle Cary," he said.

"People [are] moving into the area because people can commute in less than two hours to Paddington.

"There needs to be a longer term solution to this. There is a car park being built, [but] hopefully there's going to be a solution in the short term that can rectify the vandalism taking place."

Resident Chris, parked his car in Station Road and said he returned to find an offensive sticker on his mirror and damage to his vehicle he estimated would cost £1,000 to fix.

"It was devastating," he said.

"My wing mirror was flapping around, so that had been smashed in and not just kicked, it had been bent.

"Someone keyed the whole lot too.

"I understand the frustration. I know it's not right for the locals but it's definitely not right for the people paying money for train tickets."

(Older report from January is relevant
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-64429187

[froome]

There are some obvious solutions, one of which is to improve local public transport to the station. I think, from when I last visited Castle Cary (by bike and train) a couple of years ago, noting that there was either no bus service at all to the station from the town or just one that was infrequent. Since then Somerset services have got worse, and much of the county is now a bus desert.

[eightonedee]

This has to be laid at the door of Network Rail.

I cannot immediately think of a station on the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) system that can be more dependent on people using a car to get to it than Castle Carey. I imagine it has a large catchment area, and is a way out of Castle Carey/Ansford too. If I recall correctly, there's open industrial land nearby - surely it would have been worth either negotiating with them or laying on a minibus or similar to a car park in a nearby town?

[Bmblbzzz]

If I recall correctly, there's open industrial land nearby - surely it would have been worth either negotiating with them or laying on a minibus or similar to a car park in a nearby town?

Those sound like good ideas.

[REVUpminster]

If you put two wheels on a pavement in Havering in a non designated area a motorbike traffic warden would give you a ticket.

Cars are a hazard to old and infirm, the blind and mothers with prams.

Where I live now cars are on the pavement, park right up to the corner of a junction.

[JayMac]

The double yellow lines are now in place outside Castle Cary station. The car park extension is coming along too.

[bradshaw]

I am not able to see the images, I simply get a white blank space. I am using an ipad.

Modified
Not showing in Safari nor Firefox.

[GBM]

No problems with photo's on our desktop PC/Chrome