The fight continues over spaces in a popular and well-used car park.

A petition created by Hexham resident Mari Watson, which currently has 522 signatures, demands the council leave long stay car park spaces at Wentworth car park alone after Northumberland County Council (NCC) announced changes earlier in the year.

The changes proposed were that a new site on Ale Mouth Road, next to Travelodge, would be the new area for long-term spaces and Wentworth would cater for short and medium spaces only.

In July the council decided to make a 'U turn' to leave at least 100 long stay spaces at Wentworth, when they originally had 283.

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Despite the council believing this will solve the problem, residents are still pushing for further actions.

One of the petition's supporters, Cllr Suzanne Fairless-Aitken, said: "This is only the beginning, though the petition did get a 12-month review and 100 extra spaces.

"It had not touched residents' concerns about permits as they had seven years ago before car parking became accessible across Northumberland.

"We are not ungrateful for what the council have done to provide more free parking; we just want it to be done with reasoned results based on usage."

Mari added: "I will present the petition to the council in the next few months and I would be happy to hear how this affects people personally so that I can use examples in my speech.

"I will still petition the council to leave Wentworth as it is meaning the Bunker site is the much-needed additional long-stay parking.

"There should be more spaces closer to the town as the new site is a longer, less accessible route into Hexham - so there are possible safety issues for people walking alone to their car at night.

"Additionally, we should be encouraging visitors to Hexham to stay longer than four hours.

"Hexham is holding more and more events which encourage visitors to stay all day - the proposal actively hinders this.

"The logic of creating additional blue/medium stay bays is perplexing."