THE Lodge Lane parking row continues to rumble on.

Residents in the busy road in Grays claim the council has violated a written agreement dating back to 2005 by telling them they can no longer park on the crossover ‘drives’.

However, the council refute this saying it does not hold any record of such an agreement on file.

The authority says it can enforce the parking because a traffic regulation order has been in place on Lodge Lane which predates the agreement.

Tom Kelly, Conservative councillor for Little Thurrock Rectory, said: “The reason this is being brought in is because there seems to be some grey area in the rules.

“The laws on parking must be adhered to, but I can see both sides of the argument.

“I think the council is concerned that people could get fined for parking on double yellow lines in some areas like Stanford-le-Hope but then not in Lodge Lane.”

However, the leader of the Labour group in Thurrock is calling on the council to halt parking enforcement on Lodge Lane and allow residents to continue parking on drives that lead to their properties.

Labour leader and ward councillor, John Kent, has now submitted a motion calling on the council to rethink the measure, which he says has left residents feeling “very, very angry”.

“Resident have been parking on Lodge Lane for about 40 years now and since this was announced we have been inundated with complaints,” he said. “The council has an obligation to honour the agreement they made with residents and this is the kind of thing that gives local government a bad name. People have parked there for decades with no problem whatsoever. Now the council has ended the agreement and started issuing tickets to people outside their own homes.

“The council needs to exercise some common sense and allow people to continue parking there.”

Mr Kent urged residents to raise their frustrations with the council.