A PETITION calling on the council to allow lifeboat crew members to park for free on Cleethorpes promenade has been rejected.
More than 400 people signed the petition asking to keep the informal arrangement by which crew members displaying their RNLI sticker could park for free in spaces near the lifeboat station.
The petition was debated at Thursday night's full council meeting, where it was supported by opposition councillors but rejected by the ruling Labour group.
Council leader Chris Shaw told the meeting that the authority had actually improved the parking situation for the lifeboat crew by creating extra designated free parking spaces.
He produced an e-mail sent to him by Andrew Ashton, the regional operations manager for the RNLI, congratulating the council on resolving the parking issues faced by the resort's lifeboat crew.
Councillor Shaw also reiterated his pledge that no on-duty member of the RNLI would be charged or receive a fine for parking on the promenade.
The petition was started by Cleethorpes resident Peter Burgess after crew members were told by a parking warden that they could only park in their designated bays.
Following that, the council said it could not keep the informal arrangement but announced it would be creating extra designated parking spaces for the crew and issuing a total of eight permits.
But this did not satisfy Mr Burgess, who told Thursday night's meeting that the restriction would "place an undue burden on crew members".
He claimed that under the new arrangement, crew members would have to go into the station to collect a permit and put it in their car before going on to make their rescue.
He added: "The concession of allowing them to park near the station is an incentive for them to be at the station. If I was drowning I would prefer them to be at the station."
However, Councillor Shaw, accused Mr Burgess of scare-mongering and said: "We are here to debate something that is never going to happen."
He said that under the previous arrangement, lifeboat crew members who couldn't find a parking space on busy weekend or bank holiday would have to run the full length of the promenade.
"This was of grave concern to us and that's the reason we took action.
"There will be parking spaces for eight crew – enough to launch a boat." Lifeboat operations manager at the station, Jack Barlow, who said the previous arrangement had worked well for several years, told the Telegraph: "They have promised us more spaces and that nobody is going to get pinched for parking. I'm happy with that. We are just going to wait and see what happens."
Mr Barlow added that previously crew members who couldn't find a parking bay at busy times would park on the lower promenade.
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