00:00For years, finding a parking space at the Memorial Hospital in Sittingbourne has been a struggle
00:05and soon ANPR cameras are being installed and with it, parking charges.
00:10Over 21,000 patients already use the site and another surgery is due to move here.
00:16And the students from the nearby grammar school not parking on school premises, nearby roads are busier than usual.
00:22So it's pretty quiet at the moment but residents say this is actually quite an unusual experience.
00:28It's not just at eight o'clock in the morning for the school run and it's not just during pickup
00:32time
00:33but throughout the day that this road particularly is absolutely packed with cars parked on either side
00:39making it really difficult for any vehicle to come through.
00:42They park across the drive, particularly in the morning and at night time.
00:46I've got pictures of lorries that can't get through.
00:49We have to go out and help the lorries get through because they use this road.
00:52He's completely off the road on the pavement.
00:57I think it was the day before yesterday. There's an elderly couple. He's pushing her in a wheelchair.
01:02They're both very frail. There was a car parked on the pavement with a thorny hedge and this car
01:08could only have been about this wide and they just managed to squeeze through and I was so appalled by
01:13it.
01:13The problem we have is that the girls who get cars once they reach 17 that are at high school,
01:21I don't think are allowed to park on school premises.
01:25The other problem is the hospital because chestnut surgery is moving on that site
01:32and there is basically no parking available.
01:35It's dangerous. I mean, you can see we've got a van parked here at the moment that you can't see
01:40through.
01:41So to get off here and turn right, I have to edge out and edge out and I can't see.
01:46Some residents have taken their parking concerns to the council who have implemented double yellow lines
01:51and a white line preventing drivers from parking their cars in front of driveways.
01:55But residents on the road closest to the hospital are yet to see any changes.
01:59The NHS says the scheme is intended to enable an appropriate balance in the use of limited on-site parking
02:05spaces
02:06for staff, patients and visitors and will be introduced later this year.
02:11And with residents concerned of how students park,
02:14High State Grammar School said,
02:15There are lots of conversations with our students about the need to ensure they park respectfully and legally.
02:21While there is the odd occasion they don't get this right,
02:23it's important to acknowledge that problems with local parking go beyond the impact of our students.
02:28Kent County Council have not responded to my request for a comment.
02:32But for residents, the question is whether charging will solve the parking problem
02:35or simply move it a few streets away.
02:39Nayla Mahamud for KMTV in Sittingbourne.
