VISITORS struggling to find parking spaces in Wantage have resorted to using places reserved for leisure centre users.

People visiting the town are only allowed to park in Market Place for 30 minutes or free of charge for two hours in the nearby Limborough Road car park.

Parking is becoming such a problem shoppers are resorting to parking their vehicles at Wantage Leisure Centre to avoid paying for a ticket.

Managers at the Portway centre said dozens of customers had been complaining every day, for more than a year.

Carol Booker, 69, of Harlington Avenue, Grove, said she had considered going home rather than waiting for a space.

She said: “The car park isn’t big enough for people not using the leisure centre.

“I have almost been on the verge of going home. I’ve spent at least 10 minutes driving around and around waiting for a space.”

Michael Hunt, 67, of Mill Lane, Lambourn, said: “It’s totally wrong people who have nothing to do with the centre should use its parking.”

The centre, run by Soll Leisure, on behalf of the Vale of White Horse District Council, is used by hundreds of people each week.

Duty manager Doug Agnew said the centre could not clamp vehicles, because of the council’s no clamping policy.

He suggested a barrier could be installed at the entrance. Customers using the facilities would be given a token by centre staff to open an exit barrier.

A council spokesman said: “We’re working with the other organisations responsible for parking at the leisure centre and hope to have an effective solution in place as soon as possible.”

Mr Agnew said of the 75 parking spaces, 36 were allocated to King Alfred’s Community and Sports College, opposite the centre, during the week.

He said: “People park anywhere they can. In the bays, outside the bays, on the corners, on double yellow lines. We have coaches dropping off children for swimming lessons and sometimes the drivers can’t get around the car park.”

Soll general manager Wayne Hawkins said: “We’re receiving dozens of daily complaints from customers wanting to use the centre but who can’t.

“We’re worried that customers won’t want to visit the centre anymore. We would anyone who currently parks at the site who doesn’t use the facilities to find alternative arrangements.”

Earlier this year, Wantage traders called for Mill Street Undercroft car park to be opened. It is not yet known when the 35-space car park will be trnsferred to the council by Sainsbury’s, which owns it.