A Douglas councillor has criticised his colleagues for focusing on where police officers park their cars rather than on ratepayers’ concerns.

Ian Clague told members he was disappointed by the way a debate on introducing charges for parking at Noble’s Park had been dominated by discussions about where police park their cars.

The Council is looking at introducing a £1 per day charge for parking in the Paddock and £10 for motorhomes. However, this had made residents of nearby roads concerned that more people will just park on them instead.

Mr Clague had raised the issue of a petition that himself and other residents in the area have signed and presented to the council and the Department of Infrastructure .

He said that residents already have enough issues with St Ninian’s Road being used as a car park by St Ninian’s High School sixth formers and called on the committee exploring the issue to take it back and consider the matter again.

During the debate, council leader David Christian said he understood the concerns as ’R plate drivers from the school park there all day’.

He asked why there was no area for police staff to park and suggested the Paddock area could be used by officers when they were at work.

Councillor Andrew Bentley said that the council ’shouldn’t be leaving officers looking at fines’ if they have to park in Noble’s Park due to a lack of space in the police headquarter’s car park.

And Councillor Claire Wells said she was ’disappointed’ that the council was not supporting the police and that it was ’disgusting’ that ’we aren’t supporting our residents’.

On the matter of students’ parking, Mrs Wells said they can either pay to park ’or get the bus’ to the high school.

Chairman of the joint committee looking at the problems Ritchie McNicholl said students parking in the road ’is a DoI problem’ and said car parking at Noble’s Park has got out of hand’. ’To me this is the best solution’, he said.

Mr McNicholl said that a £1 a day charge for parking ’isn’t much’ and pointed out that many workers have to pay for their parking.

’The police aren’t a special case,’ he said.

Mr Clague said ’Nobody besides Mr Christian and Mrs Wells said anything about our residents, you all just spoke about the police’.

He added: ’Nobody seems to care about the residents. We do need to reach a compromise, but we represent the local people.’