Drivers leave their mark at Beau Sejour

The venue was packed over the last week for the six-day Festival of Dance, with one attendee saying that up to 20 vehicles had been parked on grass verges at any one time.

Deputy Andy Cameron highlighted the misuse on social media and said that he would be raising it at Thursday’s Education, Sport & Culture meeting.

‘We are concerned that it will take quite a lot of work to rectify,’ he said.

‘Some of the marks are two or three inches deep and look like a tractor has been over the area.

‘The money to repair it will have to come from somewhere, be that an already overstretched Beau Sejour budget. It is not right that the taxpayer should foot the bill.’

However, he said he understood that there were a lot of people taking part and there was obviously a pressure to find somewhere to park.

‘Perhaps we should think about introducing a shuttle bus from Town,’ he said.

‘However, we may have to take steps like introducing granite quoins to stop people parking on the grass areas.’

One dance festival visitor, who asked not to be named, said that security fencing to protect the grass had only gone up halfway through the festival.

‘By then it was too late,’ he said. ‘Every available bit of grass already had deep tyre tracks on, and people were just parking anywhere.’

He said it had become a ‘perfect storm’ when the large school groups were on stage at the same time as some of the popular group activities, such as swimming clubs.

‘The car park just could not cope. There were cars in the loading bays and disabled spaces and up on the kerbs. If you had a buggy or a pushchair you had no chance of getting through.’

Head of recreation services Samantha Herridge said that during the biennial dance festival some drivers had parked less responsibly than others.

‘This is usually anticipated by the centre and is monitored by staff,’ she said. ‘However, in the past week it was exacerbated by the bad weather.’