DOUBLE yellow lines are set to be introduced at a town’s largest long-stay car park in a move to clamp down on “indiscriminate parkers”.

East Lothian Council has confirmed it will bring forward plans to crack down on bad parking at the free site near to Tesco in Haddington town centre.

The move follows a controversial bid by the local authority to introduce a new alternative car park outside the town centre.

A bid for a “transportation hub” to the east of the town was put forward last month and sparked an angry reaction from town centre traders, who fear it will put people off shopping in the centre.

The council has launched a public consultation on Haddington town centre parking and transportation and this included an exhibition which showed images of people parking outwith allocated spaces in the current 137-space long-stay car park which is linked to Tesco’s own short-stay customer car park.

Under the heading “indiscriminate parking”, the images showed cars and vans parked on kerb corners and other unmarked areas of the car park which were not designated bays.

It was, the council said, a way to illustrate the need for additional car parking in Haddington.

Now the council has confirmed it is planning to introduce new traffic regulations which will stop people from parking outside spaces in the packed car park.

A spokesperson said: “A report will be presented to our cabinet meeting in January with proposals to introduce double yellow lines to the long-stay car park.

This is to improve safety and reduce damage to the kerbs and road surfaces caused by indiscriminate parking.

“Following cabinet, the proposals will be subject to a statutory process before the necessary regulations could be introduced.”

Last October, the council introduced similar restrictions in its own staff car park at John Muir House, Haddington, which lies a short distance from the long-stay facility.

That saw dozens of workers receive fines, from the team of private parking wardens employed by the council, for ignoring new yellow lines in their own car park.

The long-stay car park in Haddington is on land owned by East Lothian Council and accessed through the adjoining short-stay car park attached to the neighbouring Tesco supermarket.