PEOPLE who live in residents’ parking zones in Salisbury are being asked to support a campaign to make them enforceable earlier in the mornings and later in the evenings.

Zone D resident Justin Smith is urging people from all over the city who agree with his idea to contact him.

He believes parking problems in the area are largely due to houses being converted into flats, and business premises being turned into housing, creating more homes overall.

Two permits can then be issued for each postal address.

Mr Smith said: “The trouble is that there are more permits issued than there are parking spaces available.

“The latest Zone D figures I have are 657 permits and 505 spaces – and that 505 assumes that everyone parks close to the vehicle in front or behind, which frequently doesn’t happen.”

He took up the issue with his Wiltshire councillor, Richard Clewer, who has succeeded in getting another 40 spaces designated which Mr Smith accepts “will help enormously”.

However, Cllr Clewer told him that a change of hours would require a change of policy by the council, which he thought unlikely, plus a public consultation.

But Mr Smith says he cannot see why the council can’t change its policy based on empirical evidence.

At the very least he wants the zone hours extended in line with traffic wardens’ hours of work, starting at 7am and ending at 8pm seven days a week, instead of the current 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.

He said: “When people come home from work after 6pm they will rarely find spaces. This isn’t an isolated problem.”

He has created an email account where people can contact him residentparking@btinternet.com.