A SOLUTION to parking problems caused by York Hospital staff outside a shopping parade could be one step closer.

Council highways officers will put forward proposals to solve the wrangle in Intake Avenue, Clifton, York, after visiting the site earlier this month.

Shopkeepers say they are losing business and claim elderly and disabled people cannot park to visit the stores because hospital workers are leaving their cars there all day.

The plans, which would have to be passed by a council planning committee, are likely to include a number of one-hour parking spaces outside the shops and double-yellow lines on the opposite side of the road.

Coun Ken King, who had been pressing for the changes, said he was pleased to get a result.

"I think it is a big step forward," he said.

"I will be doing everything I can to convince elected members that it is in the interests of the residents and small businesses."

Alistair Murray, who runs Crichton Avenue Post Office, welcomed the latest news, saying the problem needs to be addressed urgently.

"I'm very, very pleased," he said. "It sounds exactly the sort of thing we want. The would have to have the double yellow lines on the other side otherwise we would have more problems.

"It is still going on. Customers are very pleased to hear that something is in the pipeline to try to deal with the problem because a number of them have difficulty walking any distance.

"It is not just the shopkeepers on their own that want a result with this."

Coun King said officers should also look at parking problems across the area, which had been made worse by young people moving into flats formerly occupied by the elderly.

He said: "It is critical that some form of parking restriction be implemented in that area, but once that's done the whole area needs to be looked at.

"I have had complaints from residents in a lot of the streets around there."