Guest house owner set to throw in the towel over parking issues
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A GUEST House owner has said he will probably pull the plug on his city centre B&B after fighting a losing battle for better on-street parking.
Kenneth Mackay wants Highland Council to allow people to park after 5pm until 10am the next day and all day Sunday on bays at Kenneth Street outside his guest house.
Mr Mackay has complained about current parking restrictions which prohibit on-street parking until 6pm and after 8am.
He said this is damaging his trade as visitors resent having to get up early and eat their breakfast in order to get their cars off the street before 8am to avoid a parking ticket.
His guest house owner friends in Greig Street recently won their battle for this parking rule to be eased to allow people to park up till 10am and after 5pm.
Signs went up earlier this month.
Mr Mackay is disappointed that the council has "no plans" to change the parking pattern in Kenneth Street.
Mr Mackay, who has been running his nine-bed Melrose Villa for the past 11 years, claimed the council has gone back on an earlier commitment to relax the parking rules in Kenneth Street, which is just around the corner from Greig Street.
He said: "At a meeting in September a council officer said both Greig Street and Kenneth Street would have the permit times and signs changed.
"I was there at the meeting representing Kenneth Street guest house owners, she was writing everything down, she knew full well we wanted them changed on Kenneth Street as well, that’s why we all signed a petition.
"She told us she’d discussed it with the boss and the good news was that he was willing to make the changes we requested – so why have the guest house owners on Kenneth Street been ignored?"
He added: "I’ve got nine bedrooms. We’ve got to tell people before they have their breakfast that they have to move their cars.
"But I’ve given up. It’s not worth arguing with the council anymore, I’ll most probably just shut up shop. I’ll see the season out. It’s not a problem to me."
A council spokeswoman said: "Our principal traffic officer confirms that we are unaware of any commitment to review Kenneth Street, the only discussions he is aware of were about Greig Street."
