PARKING wardens are being brought in to patrol a Huddersfield retail park which saw motorists facing huge problems at the weekend.
They will be on duty each weekend in the run up to Christmas to try to avoid a repeat of the gridlock mayhem at the Great Northern Retail Park off Leeds Road on Saturday which left some drivers sitting in stationary traffic for an hour and a half.
Frustrated drivers sat in long queues trying to leave the site and others were caught up in jams as queues built up on Leeds Road and Fitzwilliam Street leading to the retail park.
Park landlord LaSalle Investment Management has already assigned a dedicated project team to survey the problems. and have arranged for the wardens to work on the site.
The firm also says plans to reconfigure the site are on going, and it hopes they will be introduced in the New Year.
A spokesperson for the park said: “Footfall at the Great Northern Retail Park has unsurprisingly increased over the last few weeks as we experience the Christmas rush.
“To help ease congestion at the retail park, we have arranged for a traffic warden to be on site every weekend during the seasonal period.
Click below to watch a video of the traffic chaos
“Our long-term traffic management and reconfiguration plans for the car park are still in train and, subject to the necessary local authority consents, should come to fruition in the new year.
“We will provide detail on this once we have finalised our plans.”
Shops at the retail park include Next, Currys PC World, Mothercare and Boots. There have long been problems for motorists, and congestion has increased since DIY and homeware store The Range opened in April.
Many problems are caused by the design of the exit which leaves motorists stuck at traffic lights which only allow a few vehicles through before they change.
The traffic on Saturday was even busier than normal with hundreds of drivers facing huge delays.
Kirklees councillor Martyn Bolt, who witnessed the mayhem at the weekend, has called for urgent action to solve the problems, and said the council - rather than the centre’s landlords - needs to take responsibility for improvements.
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Clr Bolt said there are large areas of car parking which are seldom used, as they are not adjacent to the shops, and this land could be reconfigured to make leaving the centre quicker.
Kirklees Council has said it has been considering solutions to the existing problems with traffic flow.
It stated that highways officers have been considering more access points and are working with the site operator to reconfigure the entrance with an additional entrance off Fitzwilliam Street.
