THE noose around the necks of people who work in Hexham was drawn a little tighter this week, as yet another car park was put out of bounds for all day parkers.

The maximum stay in the M&S car park in Maidens Walk is being reduced to four hours, to ensure that customers are not prevented from getting into the store because too many places are being occupied by the plethora of workers hounded out of the Wentworth car park by the misguided free parking fiasco.

Workers are rapidly running out of options as to where they can park, for the Loosing Hill car park will soon be given over to the new bus station, and the land currently being used as a car park opposite the hospital is for sale as a site ripe for housing development.

Spaces are becoming increasingly hard to find at the hospital itself and no-one would be surprised if the health authorities introduced time-limited parking at the hospital for those not in need of medical attention.

The fact is, there is simply not enough parking to go round and there may well have been problems even without the self-inflicted wounds of the politically motivated and deeply damaging parking shake-up.

Surely there is a business opportunity here for some enterprising person with a vacant plot of land reasonably close to the town centre to make a killing, simply by laying a little Tarmac and painting a few white lines.

The eyesore that is the old bunker site on Alemouth Road comes to mind, but there are probably others.

Businesses have indicated they would be more than willing to pay a fee for car parking permits for their staff, and individuals too have made it clear they too are prepared to pay.

This is an issue that should be placed high on the agenda of the steering group behind the Hexham Business Improvement District project – parking is certainly the biggest challenge the town has faced in decades.