BOROUGH council bosses have apologised for the current car parking chaos which has been created since children's services moved into council offices at Mary Stevens Park.

A total of 250 additional staff have been switched to the Stourbridge site, snapping up all the car parking spaces in the process.

The move has left little space for visitors to the park, which has enraged local residents.

Norton Councillor Colin Elcock condemned the situation and claimed: "There are now more staff there than parking spaces. At most, there is only 130 parking places.

"As a result, council staff have taken to parking in the surrounding streets such as Stanley Road, Albermarle Road, Witton Street and Heath Lane.

"The situation is so bad that it takes some staff between half an hour and three quarters of an hour to find a place to park, which has left many of them disgruntled.

"Consequently there is no parking places available for people wishing to visit the park.

"I understand that the council have to cut costs. They own 24 different sites around the borough and they have moved staff from12 to 15 of them.

"Some will be sold off, others they rented and I believe the move to Mary Stevens Park will save £400,000, which I and my fellow ward councillors applaud, but it's to the detriment of Mary Stevens Park".

With the school summer holidays about to begin, residents now fear the car parking situation will only worsen and council bosses this week said sorry.

Cllr Tim Crumpton, cabinet member for life long learning and children's services, said: "I apologise to everyone who has been put out. We're doing all we can behind the scenes to ensure the public get a fair share of car parking spaces, but there are very good reasons for moving staff to Mary Stevens Park.

"Unfortunately the car parking situation wasn't looked into well enough.

"We are looking at alternative places to park, but there has always been difficulty parking in Stourbridge."