A COUNCILLOR has claimed that disabled users of a village car park are being discriminated against because suitable parking bays are in the wrong place.

Councillor George Freeman made the claim after Argyll and Bute Council revealed that more than two thirds of its parking income between April and June came from the facility in Luss.

The figures were revealed in a document for the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee.

A total of £35,009 out of £51,523 was revealed to have come from Luss, with £9,723 coming from Arrochar and a total of £7,241 from Helensburgh’s two car parks, at the pier and in Sinclair Street.

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Councillor Freeman claimed to have correspondence assuring him that the disabled spaces would be moved closer to shops in the village, but that this has not happened.

He told the committee meeting: “More than 50 per cent of income from car parking comes from Luss car park, and that continues to annoy me.

“For over two years, with that income, the first priority has normally been to plough it back into car parks.

“One of the priorities has been to get the disabled bays moved to the business end of the car park – where the shops and facilities are based.

“I am due to be back there tonight [the day of the meeting], but the last time I visited that still had not happened.

“We are discriminating against the disabled and forcing them to walk all the way across the car park to get into the village.

“The ward that produces the most domestic rates is Lomond North, but the investment in that area is probably minimal.”

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Hugh O’Neill, of the council’s roads department, said he would liaise on the matter with Stuart Watson, who deals with car parks on behalf of the authority.

Councillor Freeman continued: “I have correspondence going back over two years, the last being from about a month or six weeks ago.

“I kept getting told that when the re-lining of the car park is done, they will move the disabled parking spaces.

“All of the lining has been renewed, but they have not provided suitable spaces.

“It is unacceptable that this has gone on for so long.”

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