New management of Exmouth Library’s car park is being implemented to crackdown on unauthorised parking.

Spaces at the Exeter Road site have been repeatedly taken for hours – and sometimes days – meaning some library customers have not been able to access the building. The mobile library has also sometimes been blocked in.

Premier Parking Solutions has been enlisted to manage the car park and ensure those who are not authorised to park at the library are issued tickets. The new management will begin on Thursday (June 30).

A spokesman for Libraries Unlimited, which runs Exmouth Library, said: “We’re doing it because we want to ensure as many library users as possible, including those with disabilities, elderly, families, room hirers and students, can reliably find spaces in our car park.

“We also want to make sure our mobile library van, which provides an important service for many isolated customers, can leave the car park on time.”

PPS is providing this service free of charge to Libraries Unlimited meaning any money obtained from parking tickets is retained by PPS as part of the agreement. Libraries Unlimited won’t make money from it.

“Unfortunately, in recent times there have been many incidents of the mobile library van being blocked in and parking spaces being taken by unauthorised users,” added the Libraries Unlimited representative.

“Customers, including those with disabilities, have complained that they have been able to use the car park.

“Devon County Council has no authorisation to issue fines, and building gates would be too expensive. So, we have come up with a cost-effective option that we hope will make a real difference.””

“We hope this new measure will encourage families to bring their children to our library.”

The car parking hours for the library remain 9am – 6pm on weekdays and 9am – 4pm on Saturdays.

PPS will issue fines to unauthorised cars without a valid parking permit on display or if the owners of the cars in question are not inside the library premises during the library's opening times: Monday -Friday 9am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 4pm.

Parking for library users will be free of charge during opening times. Staff and permit holders will also be able to park for free all day.

Outside these times, the car park still remains available to local residents. Motorbike riders can still park for free in the left corner of the car park provided they won’t use extra car park spaces or obstruct the mobile library van.