A TRADER claims he is losing £400 each week because builders working on the new Farnborough Hospital are using his street as a car park.

For months Taylor Woodrow Construction builders have also clogged up hospital visitors' parking spaces and Sainsbury's customers' spaces.

Lawrence Mantella, who owns Lock's Head Hairdressing, Crofton Road, says he is losing £400 each week and does not know how he will keep his business going until spring 2003 when the hospital is due to be completed.

He said: "Christmas is normally a vibrant time for us but it's not going to pay this year."

Eunice Gibbs, who owns Edward Ash Gallery, also in Crofton Road, said: "My figures are down by half. I feel like taking Taylor Woodrow to court for loss of trade."

On November 8, Bromley Council renewed planning permission given to Taylor Woodrow to build a temporary parking site at the former Blue Circle sports ground in Bromley Common.

But residents are sceptical about whether the company's plan to shuttle staff between the parking site and Locksbottom will work.

One Wolds Drive resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Builders won't go for this park-and-ride scheme because it doesn't give them the comfort of having their car nearby."

Staff at Sainsbury's, in Pallant Way, have collected more than 600 customer complaints about parking in just two weeks.

Vehicles can be left in the supermarket's share of the car park for three hours free of charge, or for four hours in the hospital's part.

A fine of £25 can then be imposed, but this is reduced to £15 if paid within 10 days.

Sainsbury's manager Elliot Pilcher, who is in talks with Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust to resolve the crisis, said: "The builders pay the parking fine because it's no more expensive than a car park."

A spokesman for Taylor Woodrow Construction said: "We will have 75 car parking spaces at Bromley Common at the end of the year. This should ease the problem considerably."

A spokesman for Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We are in discussions with various local sites to try and arrange park-and-ride or park-and-walk schemes for our staff, thereby freeing up space on site for patients and visitors."

November 26, 2001 9:37