STRICT new parking rules at a massive mill complex will cause chaos on nearby roads, residents say.

Tenants and owners of apartments at Linthwaite-based Titanic Mill have long enjoyed a free reign of the complex’s public car park as well as their own allocated space in a secure area.

But this week new parking rules have been imposed, banning them from the public car park used by guests and staff of the Titanic Spa.

Village Estates, the management company that runs the complex, has told residents they can park just one car in the premises and no visitor spaces have been provided.

The changes have caused uproar among tenants of the mill who say the original lease for their flats entitle them to use the public car park as overspill for their second vehicles and guests.

One flat owner, who did not want to be named, has provided a document to The Examiner which states that tenants can use the shared car park if their allocated space is in use.

She said: “The only alternative for us is to park on Low Westwood Lane and it’s causing absolute havoc.

“It’s very dangerous and yet the main car park is half-empty.

“I’ve got three grown-up children and eight grandchildren. If they were all to come round for dinner it’s going to be hard to park.

“There’s over 100 flats so you can imagine it’s going to be chaos – it will look like a traffic accident.”

The woman said they also believed Kirklees Council had imposed a planning condition when the flats were approved that residents were not to park on Low Westwood Lane.

But John Dauré, spokesman for the complex’s management company, Village Estates, said it was clear the leases only allowed one car.

Mr Dauré, who also provided The Examiner with a document proving his case, said tenants had forced their hand after ignoring polite requests for more than a year.

He said the company had spent £4,000 fixing an automatic gate to the secured parking area, but residents had continued to avoid their own marked bays.

Mr Dauré said two tenants had been operating car valeting and dent repair businesses from the car park and said both he and the spa manager had been verbally abused several times.

He said: “We put notices up and signs but people were ignoring them.

“It wasn’t a case of just a few – it was 95% of residents who did not do it.

“The spa car park does get full. Residents seem to think it’s not a problem but it is.

“The spa said it was a concession they could no longer put up with and asked us to withdraw it.”

Another resident, who bought a flat in the mill with his wife when it launched in 2006, said the parking restrictions were just the tip of the iceberg.

He said a host of strict rules at the mill were making living there less enjoyable.

He said: “It was good here, but it gets worse and worse every year.

“We can’t have a party without asking permission and yet the spa has hen parties.

“Meanwhile, the management fees have gone up from £895 to almost £2,000 per year.

“It’s well-named this place – Titanic – as it’s a disaster.

“There’s plenty of people absolutely devastated about this.”

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