A host of restrictions designed to ease parking chaos in Whitehaven town centre will be soon be introduced.

Cumbria County Council agreed last year to a raft of restrictions after consulting with the public - and confirmed that the new measures will be introduced in the coming weeks.

Included are:

  • No waiting at any time restrictions on parts of Bentinck Row, Coach Road, Cock Pit Lane, George Street, Harbour View, Inkerman Terrace, Preston Street, Sea View Road, The Gardens
  • No waiting between 8.30am and 5.30pm from Mondays to Fridays on parts of Harbour View
  • Disc parking with one-hour limits on parts of Swingpump Lane, Wellington Row, Strand Street, Bentinck Row, Harbour View, The Gardens, Preston Street, The Ginns

    Whitehaven’s car parking situation has been widely described as chaotic since 1,000 nuclear workers moved into Albion Square in October 2014, with householders and councillors reporting indiscriminate parking around town and on Kells and Bransty.

Copeland Council recently converted land at The Ginns into a pay-and-display car park.

Amid some criticism of its lack of use, mayor Mike Starkie says that the car park - and others - will be used more once the county council's parking restrictions are imposed. 

He added: "We don't want to stop people coming into town, but we want people to park where they are supposed to.

"These parking restrictions will make that happen."

Mr Starkie has called a public meeting in Mirehouse Labour Club on Wednesday, May 18 at 6pm to address the parking situation and other Whitehaven-related issues.

Confirmed to attend are representatives of Cumbria County Council, Whitehaven Town Council and West Cumbria Mining, the firm behind plans to extract coking coal locally. An invite has also been extended to Sellafield Ltd.

It wa reported last month that 300 more Sellafield Ltd staff will move into the Copeland Centre before the end of 2016, despite having only 130 parking spaces allocated.

This is made up of 50 at the Copeland Centre itself and 80 at the soon-to-be-converted former skatepark behind Tesco. Sellafield Ltd says this number will be "more than adequate" for the staff who will be based there at any one time. The spokesman added many will car share, use public transport or walk to work.