FED UP residents in a Pontypool street say Torfaen council staff are using their road as a car park.

Residents in St James Field Road, just behind the church of the same name and a stone’s throw from the Civic Centre, said parking outside their own homes has become a lottery.

They have even asked the council to consider residents’ parking in the street, and say they are happy to pay for permits if that will help solve the problem.

Janine Edwards, 34, and her family have lived on the street for 10 years.

She said: “It’s a very small street, there’s only six houses.

But when I leave for work in the morning I’ve got people waiting to take my space.

“My husband works shifts so sometimes when he’s taken our sons to school he’ll come back and his space is gone so he has to park on the other side of town.”

Mrs Edwards says she has confronted some of the drivers and they have told her they are parking there because they work at the nearby civic centre.

“They’ve just built a huge car park at Trosnant Street for the council workers and it’s a three minute walk from the Civic Centre. It’s just so lazy.”

Pontypool ward Cllr Mike Harris has raised the residents’ concerns with the council. “Residents are suffering and I think there should be residents’ parking there,” he said.

Torfaen council said it does not have the resources to introduce and managed resident permit schemes. A spokesman said the recently opened Old Mill car park on Trosnant Street provides an extra 200 long stay spaces and has freed up short stay spaces in the civic centre car park.

He added: “We have also created leaflets which promote all nine car parks in Pontypool, which provide more than 900 dedicated spaces for visitors, shoppers, traders and everyone working in Pontypool.”