A shop owner is demanding Southend Council has a parking restriction sign installed on the street outside his store.

David Grimes, 44, owner of the florist shop Fiori located in Station Road, Westcliff, said the lack of a car parking restriction sign outside his store is damaging his business because drivers are taking up parking spaces all day.

He claimed there used to be a parking restriction sign outside his shop, but the council has not restored the facility after it was allegedly stolen.

“I bought this unit last October and I was told by the occupants here there was, apparently, a parking restriction sign here, but someone had stolen it and council has not replaced it.”

Fiori’s location attracts a lot of traffic and cars as it is located near popular businesses such as the Cliffs Pavilion.

“The space can park about four to five cars, depending on the sizes of the vehicles. I contacted council months and months ago and I haven’t heard from them.

“It’s annoying that we have lots of traffic going on and we’ve got people taking up the spaces the entire day.

“When customers see parking spaces being filled all the time it deters them from coming into my shop because there’s no parking available for them.

“The council should be backing the small businesses because we too pay our business rates.”

Mr Grimes added: “People who park here don’t understand what damage it does to businesses.

“People are more likely to frequent a shop if there are facilities available to them.

“But having a parking restriction sign here will stop people piling up in this car park.”

A spokesman from Southend Council said there are only restrictions in place for the bus stop which starts to the east of Fiori.

A council spokesman, says: “There are currently no parking restrictions in place on this particular stretch of road.

“There are ‘no stopping’ restrictions between 7am and 7pm slightly to the east, but these only apply to the nearby bus stop.

“We support local businesses and there is a process in place to deal with requests for waiting restrictions through our Traffic and Parking and Cabinet committees.

“In the first instance we would advise that Mr Grimes speaks to his local ward councillors and neighbours to establish if there would be support for them to be introduced in this area.”