Business owners are becoming frustrated with recent changes at a Nottinghamshire retail park which has seen their customers receiving fines. Visitors at Northgate Retail Park, off Lincoln Bridge Road, Newark, are no longer able to leave the site whilst parked there, which means they need to park elsewhere to visit nearby businesses.
For almost 20 years Donna B’s Tasty Bites has been located opposite the retail park but now her customers are unable to park there and walk across for fear of being fined. Donna Broadley, owner of Donna B’s, said: “Since I have been here, they have added yellow lines to make it more difficult and permit parking.
"Before there were no yellow lines or nothing, so it was the perfect area. There was only a Woolworths, so it wasn’t really a retail park and now it’s up and running it seems like they wanted to do their own thing.”
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Donna is frustrated at the retail park’s parking changes, as Aldi and the newly opened Maltings Retail Park, nearby, do not restrict where customers can go “as long as they are back in the two hours”.
Several of Donna’s customers have been fined. Many are regulars and are used to doing their shopping at the retail park and then going to Tasty Bite’s for a drink or lunch.
Donna added: “It is awful and it’s getting worse; I apologise to my customers that have been fined.” Following the parking changes, Donna is working with others in the community to try and get a free two-hour parking service implemented.
She said: “Really we are pushing to get this free parking for them so they can do their shopping. I think two hours is enough to do the shopping and pop in if they want to have a drink or whatever.”
Another business that has seen its customers receive fines is The Coffee Chain, situated opposite Northgate Retail Park in Warwick Brewery.
Jody Bett, co-owner of The Coffee Chain, said: “We’ve put a sign out there to warn customers as we don’t want our customers getting fined. We have tried our hardest and written our own sign so, as soon as people walk over, they can make their own decision.”
Jody says she can understand where the retail park owners are coming from, as the car park is full most of the day, with cars not just belonging to shoppers but commuters who go to the train station.
Visitors wanting to go to Warwick Brewery businesses can park in the site’s own car park for up to two hours for free, or pay for parking after that. However, business owners within the brewery have concerns over people parking in their car park, and then going to the nearby retail parks. Nottinghamshire Live attempted to contact Northgate Retail Park bosses for comment.
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