Saltcoats residents fear they could face "car wars" after council bosses pressed ahead with plans for double yellow lines on one side of their street.

The town's narrow Sidney Street regularly sees residents forced to partially park on the pavement.

Now residents say North Ayrshire Council's double yellow plan will cause chaos - and that they are furious over a lack of consultation.

A public notice was placed in the press and a couple of signs put up on the street regarding the plan - but no individual letters were sent out to the residents.

One man from Sidney Street said: "Most people park their cars outside their house. Neighbours really had no idea about this and the consultation closed on March 1.

"I am pretty certain that even if they had carried out a proper consultation, they would still be dead set to do this. But at the very least there would have been 30 or 40 letters of objection.

“It also comes at a time when they are rolling out wardens. It is a cynical bid by the local authority to generate income and they have not gone about it the right way."

The resident added: “If you park on the pavement they will fine you, but now they are saying you can’t park in the road outside your house. That will affect people if they try to rent or sell their properties. 

"They are now saying there will be enough space for people from both sides of Sidney Street to park down the one side, but there’s not enough space.

“All this will do is create car wars in the street."

He added: "I have been in touch with local councillors and our MP and MSP over this. I have also contacted the Scottish Government.

"The pavement on the street has been widened – it used to be a two way street and people used to be able to park on both sides. It was finally made one way some years ago.

"There’s also a volume of extra traffic since the Caledonia care home was opened."

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “The pavement parking ban, introduced by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, is set to be enforced in North Ayrshire with warning notices being issued from March 28 and penalty charge noticing from April 15.

“We recognised that this would be a particular problem in Sidney Street, where vehicles habitually park on the footways and cannot park fully on both sides of the road without blocking vehicle passage.

“We looked at various options, and after studying parking levels, a proposal comprising of parking restrictions and marked parking bays to regulate parking in Sidney Street was prepared and agreed with elected members and Police Scotland.

“The majority of the parking bays are situated on one side of the street in order to maximise space available for parking.”

The spokesperson added: “A waiting restriction Traffic Regulation Order to regulate parking has been promoted in line with the Local Authorities Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1999.

"An advert was placed in the local press on January 16, 2024, and although not required, on-street notices were attached to lighting columns in Sidney Street on February 5 to draw residents' attention to the proposed changes.

“The advertised consultation period ended on February 6, but this was extended, due to the addition of on-street notices, to March 1 to allow residents further time to give their views.

"Promotion of the order will be advertised on March 20 with the Traffic Regulation Order coming into force on May 8.

"Please note that enforcement of the ban on footway parking will be in place prior to this.”