Nantwich MP Kieran Mullan has called on Cheshire East Council to re-open a car park in the town centre.
Local businesses say the closure of the Hospital Street and Church Lane car park is damaging trade.
The car park was closed last summer to remove some traffic off Hospital Street as a temporary road closure was imposed to support social distancing around the town centre.
But Dr Mullan said there has been little enforcement of the closure while the car park has remained close.
He says he has written to Cheshire East before with concerns around reduced access to disabled residents that made use of the car park.
And local businesses, including Madison Spa, highlighted the damage it was doing to footfall locally.
Cheshire East has kept the measures in place.
Dr Mullan said: “I was never particularly convinced this was the right approach and certainly I have never seen good evidence that doing this played any role in controlling coronavirus.
“People are now well used to understanding the need to keep distant and I don’t see how maintaining the closure can be justified.
“We need to help our local businesses.”
“We know there are challenges locally with the virus but we need to focus on things that we know make a difference like regular testing. Not box ticking measures that don’t make an impact.”
We have contacted Cheshire East Council and are awaiting a reply.
It was part of Cheshire East Council’s “emergency measures” in 16 towns to ensure people can socially distance more safely.
I work near Hospital Street and things seem fine to me, judging from local retailers. The car park being “closed” allows the Italian bistro to have outdoor seating. I do notice that people do still park there, despite the closure. Particularly those with expensive cars, who think themselves better than everyone else. The “Doctor” is complaining for the sake of complaining.
May I point him in the direction of the weeds growing out of the side of nearly every pavement edge in the town. As a child, I remember these were regularly treated. It’s a mess.
I Live 4 miles out of Nantwich and have a disabled child. Whilst walking /cycling should be encouraged. This is about allowing access to a carpark which allows people with disabilities as well as the able bodied access to the shops and in turn helps boosts local businesses.
Disabled people are allowed to park anywhere including double yellows so there is no need to provide disabled parking.
I also am fed up of lazy people driving their kids to school and going into town. Anything 1.5 miles or less should be walked or cycled.
The vehicular traffic has never been regulated throughout the town centre. No enforcement, ever! Seems to be generally ignored and I gain lots of abuse, if I mention it to any perpetrators.
Perhaps our MP has a short memory as it was his government which said we should use the opportunity presented to us by lockdown to encourage more walking and cycling in the longer term. The shutdown of hospital street car park should be part of a wider discussion , of do we need to try and keeps reduced level of traffic flow along pillory street and hospital street to encourage more walking . You tend to get more people looking and shopping at local businesses when free of traffic, There are still plenty of other car parks nearby even with the loss of church lane and perhaps we should consider other uses for the church lane space than just car parking. .