Residents living in a popular west end neighbourhood have hit out over plans to open up parking to the public.
Hillhead locals have been informed that all marked bays in the area will now be available for use by visitors as well as residents.
Glasgow City Council has justified the proposal as "a more efficient use of limited parking space in a high traffic area". Residents were first alerted to the plans via notice signs placed around the neighbourhood.
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One Hillhead resident spoke to Glasgow Live about the impact this will have on people living in the area , describing it as a "nightmare".
She said: "We are so close to such a popular area but it will always be popular. You’ve got the weekend visitors and shoppers, the events that take up the whole of winter from autumn to after Christmas, where you’ve got every single night and weekend huge numbers coming to the west end.
"They get here and they don’t need parking - they will still always come. There’s no commercial reason why you would need to put out so many residents.
"This is why they community is wanting to protect our few parking spots. There aren’t enough parking spots for the people living here as it is - every evening every parking spot is full. The council is claiming that is not the case, but I don’t think they’ve done the maths.
"What we’re worried will happen is if you’re only restricting from 8.45am to 5.15pm, when people who live here are coming back from work, there will be people who have left their car here. Then at the weekend, when families are out, we’ll come back and won’t have a place to park near the house.
"And it’s also a massive hill - you have to hike up a huge hill and there’s loads of families on my street with little kids, some with three. As a family, it’s a nightmare to have to hike your shopping and kids all the way up the hill. You just don’t know where you’ll be able to park. Our worry is that it could start to become very troublesome.
"There are also a lot of doctors in the area that live here because they are close to a lot of hospitals. One of the doctors raised that it’s part of her contract for her to be within 20 minutes drive form the hospital because of life-saving needs.
"She said 'if I’m parked 10 minutes walk away, I can’t get to the hospital'. That’s a much worse position. She would literally have to give up her own home.
"It’s putting people in a real position to question if they want to live here anymore."
A spokesman for the council said: “Residents’ parking permits remain in place in the Hillhead parking zone and will continue to give residents the right to park their vehicle in an available parking bay within the zone at all times.
“A recent traffic order will change arrangements within the zone so that all marked bays are available for use by both residents and visitors.
“We believe these shared arrangements, which are due to come into effect later this year, will allow for a more efficient use of limited parking space in a high traffic area.
“The change in arrangements will also make it easier for visitors such as family or contractors to park near to their intended destination."
The local authority also clarified that despite initial plans to increase the charges for parking permits in the area, this is no longer going ahead. Glasgow City Council apologised for the mistake.
The spokesman continued: “However, an increase to the charge for parking permits for the revised parking zone will not now go ahead.
“A proposal to increase permit charges was included for consideration in initial budget options put before councillors but ultimately this option was not approved by the council.
“Notices have remained in place as they include information on increases to charges for using on-street parking bays, which were approved by councillors as part of the budget setting process.
“We are sorry for any confusion this error has caused and residents will see no increase to permits implemented on April 2 this year.”
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