RESIDENTS in Greenmount have been left “incensed” after a decision to bring in parking charges to The Toby Carvery.

The former Bulls Head in Brandlesholme Road was used regularly used by patients visiting the Greenmount Medical Centre due to the small size of the surgery’s car park.

However, a recent implementation of charges has shocked staff and patients from the practice.

Debbie Phillip, who works at the centre, said: “Patients with mobility issues will not have anywhere to go. We have 10,500 patients at our practice and a lot of them did use the pub car park, that has been the situation for years and that has worked well.”

Mrs Phillip said they had heard rumours that it was going to happen but they did not think that they would go through with it.

The pub is located across the road from Greenmount Old School Community Centre, which is used by a number of different groups, who would also use the car parking facilities.

Mrs Phillip added: “We are living in a dementia aware town but the pub clearly cannot be on board with that by bringing in these charges.The whole village is incensed. Greenmount is going to be congested with people who are double parked and people with mobility issues aren’t going to be able to get to the surgery.

“It was not just used by people coming to the practice either it was used by the whole community. The pub’s patrons would also use our car park too, so it worked out for them.”

A spokesman for Toby Carvery said: “The car park is privately owned by us and we obviously need to be able to provide free parking for our guests.

“We found our car park was full or looked full to passing guests as it was being used regularly by people who weren’t visited the pub. In addition our disabled spaces are unavailable for our disabled guests. Therefore we have introduced a pay and display scheme.

The parking fees are £1 for two hours and our guests can redeem charges against food and drink purchased with us. If a guest did want to leave a car overnight then we ask they make the pub team aware. So far feedback from our guests has been positive as they have been able to park easily when visiting.”