A resident from Carlisle's historic quarter has spoken out in favour of controversial plans to restrict on-street Sunday parking in the area.

Traders last week hit out at a Cumbria County Council plan to introduce an hour's limit to disc-zone parking in the city centre between 11pm and 5pm on Sundays. Motorists can currently park there on Sundays without restriction.

Several business owners in the city have said the restriction would drive people away from the city centre, damaging trade.

But some residents in the area – which includes the streets around Carlisle Cathedral – have spoken out in defence of the proposal, saying it is necessary to combat the Sunday parking “chaos” that afflicts the area.

Carol Robson, who has a flat in the area, is a member of the Historic Quarter Residents Action Group. Referring to Sundays, she said: “It's now so bad it's not a question of being to park outside your own home or even in your own street.

“There are days at a time when you can't find anywhere to park in the entire zone.

“We know that having a resident's parking permit does not guarantee you a space but you do expect, if you can't park outside your house, to at least be able to park somewhere within walking distance of your home.

“If you're elderly and you have to park a long way from your home it can make life pretty unbearable. I sometimes park down by the Civic Centre, or outside the station.

"It doesn't make any sense to encourage people to park in this area.

"Local business people keep saying it would be bad for business to have these restrictions but they have produced nothing to demonstrate that would be the case.

"It's in nobody's interest to have this area completely jammed up with traffic as it is now.”

After researching the issue themselves, residents produced a report which will be among the papers to be considered by county councillors when they discuss the proposals at today's meeting in Carlisle.

They say that as many as 120 cars an hour circulate in the Castle Street area looking for a free parking space and it is now harder than ever for residents to find a space between 4pm and 6pm.

The group wants to see a “residents and loading only” parking zone introduced, arguing that this would be good for both business and residents, and would make the historic quarter more attractive to tourists.

Larger vehicles and lorries can regularly seen reversing along Paternoster Road and Abbey Street because the streets in that area are so choked with traffic that they have become impassable, says the report.

The council’s highways and transport working group has reviewed city centre parking, and its proposals will be considered by senior councillors at a meeting today.

Cumbria County Council officials say that the authority inherited responsibility for on-street disc parking in 2001 when there was no Sunday trading.

A spokesman said: “A lot has changed since then. Everybody goes to town on a Sunday, hence there is greater competition for car parking spaces in Zone C which is exclusively city centre. There is also a high number of residential properties as well.

“Cumbria remains one of a handful of local authorities that do not charge for resident parking permits’ or similar.”

But business owners such as Steve Matthews, from Bookends in Castle Street, said the proposed restriction was unnecessary.

Speaking last week, he said: “The city needs to be as welcoming as possible, and putting in unnecessary parking restrictions is not very welcoming.”

There are currently around 80 accommodation 'units' in the historic quarter and 69 disc parking spaces. Mrs Robson will make a presentation on the Zone C parking proposals at today's meeting of the Carlisle Local Area Committee of the County Council, which gets underway at 10.30am at Cumbria House, Botcherage.