Parking outside a Great Yarmouth community hub could resume under a new trial arrangement.

The experiment could bring an end to a dispute that began last May when Norfolk County Council banned parking outside Christchurch on King Street.

The ban led to fears the church could close due to dwindling numbers of visitors.

A spokesperson for the county council said: "As an experiment, additional parking bays for church-users, blue badge holders, as well as 90-minute bays for the wider community, will be provided.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Signs banning parking appeared outside Christchurch in Great Yarmouth in May 2021.Signs banning parking appeared outside Christchurch in Great Yarmouth in May 2021. (Image: Archant)

"Work on signage and road markings will also be carried out and motorists will be able to use the bays as soon as they are marked out.  

"This will run alongside consultation with the public and we will be looking for feedback over the coming months."

But Andy Ingram, property manager and caretaker at the church, is frustrated that the issue has still not been resolved.

He said: "All I've been told is it's moving forward, but when that will be I do not know.

"This just seems to be going and going and going. it's just ridiculous.

"Just let us have nine spaces at the front, with permits. What's so difficult about that?"

He said the arrangement had "worked fine" for 10 years before the county council erected signs stating that parking was banned on the verge or footway.

"They changed all the signs without consultation. We can't understand the reason behind it," he said.

Until May last year, many visitors to the church could park on the building's forecourt with a permit.

Christchurch provides space for 18 weekly community groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, University of the Third Age and the Great Yarmouth Civic Society.

Last July, Norfolk County Council said it had plans to reverse the parking ban at the site.

They said they were planning to change the legal restriction so parking would be allowed in the area in the future.

Statutory consultation on a change to the legal order was expected to take place in the summer of 2021. 

In August, the council said the delay to the change of traffic order around the church is part of a larger project to improve the existing parking in Great Yarmouth.