A PLEA from a householder in Kennet Place, Marlborough, for a residents' parking scheme is now being investigated by Kennet District Council.

Town councillors however, did not support Val Compton's request, saying there was little benefit because residents who paid for permits were not guaranteed a space.

Miss Compton, who works at Savernake Hospital, sent the town council a copy of a letter she had written to Kennet District Council.

She said when she first moved to Kennet Place in 1996 it was not difficult to find a parking space near her home.

"With neighbourly attitude we used all eight free spaces, coming and going at varying hours until one local trader began to monopolise one of the spaces using a "swapping" method with a member of his staff.

"He became rather aggressive and threatening one day after I had waited 45 minutes for a space, which I drove into as his staff member drove out. He felt he had a right to it. It was then I decided to find alternative parking.

"This same trader was directing people to whom he was renting property to leave their cars permanently in Kennet Place, which of course they had every right to do. In the past a culture of civility and courtesy had prevailed over parking, this quickly disappeared."

She said new private homes and social housing being built in Angel Yard would have off-street parking but would still exacerbate the parking difficulties in Kennet Place because 20 free spaces would be lost as a result of the development.

She added: "Other traders still use vehicle swapping methods to continually use a space. We are now running into real difficulties."

Mayor Maurice Cooper told the finance and general purposes committee the town council had already pursued the idea for people living around The Green, but found the big disadvantage would be that, while residents had to pay for parking permits, they were not assured a parking space.

Coun Audrey Peck said besides no guarantee of spaces, the schemes also wasted parking space at times of day when they were not used by residents but could not be used by anyone else.

The committee agreed to tell Miss Compton it could not support her request.

Later Miss Compton said while she was not surprised at the town council's lack of support, she was delighted Kennet had listened and sent one of its officers to gather further information.