Car boot sales boss in traffic pledge

Bosses of two car boots sales that cause traffic misery for villagers in South Staffordshire today pledged to look at ways of easing congestion.

Two boot sales are held along the A460 Cannock Road, one at Featherstone and one 350 yards away at Shareshill, attracting thousands of bargain hunters.

The sales, held yesterday and also today, bring thousands of stall holders and buyers to the area. But residents and councillors claim cars are parked on their driveways and block them in.

It means they are often unable to leave their homes on boot sale days.

Although yellow cones are placed on verges to stop motorists from stopping, the cones used are not police issued ones and officers cannot issue penalty tickets to drivers who disobey them.

The Featherstone boot sale runs at 6am-2pm and the afternoon Shareshill one starts at 10am, meaning they overlap by four hours.

Today Kevin Brown, owner of Market Promotions, which runs the sales, said: "If the council will give us permission then we will open up extra entrances so that people are not all coming in in one place," he said.

"We'll pay for some official police cones near to the main entrance junctions and we'll look at using a traffic management company.

He said: "We're happy to work with the council to improve things for residents."

Father-of-three Mark Edwards, from Hilton Lane, says the traffic caused by boot sales is "horrendous."

The 47-year-old shop owner said: "Sundays are a living nightmare because of the boot sales. We get people parking over our drives and sat in traffic looking in through our windows.

"On one occasion somebody even parked a white van on our drive and walked to the sale because they couldn't be bothered to wait in the traffic.

"Our family don't come to visit on Sundays anymore because of the problems they have getting here."

The car boot sales run for 14 weeks in the summer.

District councillor and chairman of Shareshill Parish Council, Bob Cope, said: "If we could have extra entrances to get cars on to the sites faster, official police cones to stop drivers parking on verges and a bigger difference in starting time between the two sales then that would help."