Owner blasts ‘antisocial’ parking blocking hotel access

The owner of Ottery’s Tumbling Weir Hotel has pleaded with motorists to be mindful of where they park - after a mystery car was left blocking its only access route.

Lynn Thurgate said the vehicle could have potentially stopped a fire engine reaching the thatched property in an emergency.

She said that access to the hotel had been an issue since she took it on 15 years ago as parking nearby is limited.

There is only a narrow lane to get in or out and the car left there this week could have made reaching the premises impossible for an emergency vehicle.

“It’s the only vehicular access to our hotel – if an ambulance or a fire engine needed to get through, it wouldn’t be able to,” said Mrs Thurgate.

“You can just get a car through, but I doubt very much you would get a delivery van through.

“It shouldn’t be parked there – it’s antisocial.

“It’s more about fire engines. We’re thatched, so we have a thing about fire engines.”

The car arrived on Tuesday evening and ‘disappeared’ briefly on Wednesday morning – only to be parked further into the middle of the lane.

Police arrived on Wednesday afternoon to move the vehicle.

“We’ve had ongoing access problems since we’ve been here, and it’s got worse over the last few years,” added Mrs Thurgate. “People are parking either side of our lane. There’s very little residential parking. There are places to park, but people would have to walk further.”