Smoking ban leads to parking issues in Minto

PALMERSTON – The Town of Minto is restricting parking on Main Street near the high school here due to an increase in students parking off school grounds to get around anti-smoking rules.

“You can’t smoke anywhere on the (school) property. So now the kids that want to smoke are all parking on the main street,” explained bylaw officer Cam Forbes at the Sept. 3 Minto council meeting.

“If you drive through the parking lot behind the high school, you’ll find it’s half full, there’s a lot of empty spaces there.”

“The biggest problem is when you’re coming off White’s Road you can’t see oncoming traffic,” said Forbes.

Council approved a staff recommendation to implement a no parking zone on the north side of Main Street East for 30 metres from White’s Road, and then two-hour parking between 8am  and 6pm from the 30-metre mark to Brunswick St., and two-hour parking between 8am to 6pm on the south side of Main Street East from Queen Street North to Cumberland Street.

Council also approved  a staff recommendation to prohibit parking on Webster Street. Under the existing bylaw Webster Street was designated as no parking between 8:30am and 4:30pm on any school day.

Reporter

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