Slapewath landlord defends installing parking machine at popular walking spot pub near Guisborough

A landlord has installed a parking machine at a North Yorkshire pub to stop people abusing his car park - from fly-tippers and overnight campers to dog walkers.

Drivers arriving at the Fox and Hounds, at Slapewath, near Guisborough, now have to pay if they want to park onsite.

The popular spot, off the A171, near Birk Brow, is busy with walkers along the Cleveland Way.

Huss Ltd, which is landlord for the hotel's Retriever bar restaurant, and The Chase cafe, said they were fed up of "daily abuse" from people who want to park but do not use the facilities.

A spokesperson for the company said they had been dealing with the problem for five years and have never asked tenants for "any service charge for maintenance, lighting or security" of the car park.

"People fly-tip, they drive round the back when it's dark, dump their rubbish and drive out," the spokesperson said.

"Dog walkers with seven or eight dogs, even vans pull up and take them for a walk into the woods, then come back and drive off."

They continued: "People share cars, they dump a couple of cars in the car park then take a third car and go to Whitby, leaving their vehicles for the day. People hold runs in the area, they set up a rest station with water in our car park.

"We are in the middle of The Cleveland Way, it's a perfect location. We run a hotel here but people still park in their camper vans and sleep for the night. There's a campsite round the corner."Sometimes people leave their cars for two or three days."

Customers can park for free for the first half hour, with a £2 charge for the following hour and £1 for the next.

Hotel patrons are exempt and there are two free spaces for Blue Badge holders.The Retriever bar restaurant is also deducting the cost of the parking for customers who present their tickets, the spokesperson added.

The company denied claims they were running the scheme for profit after handing the car park over to a management firm, Creative Carpark Solutions, with cameras and ticket machines.

They said with they were "still at a loss" after maintenance costs.

"Some people are saying this is money-making scam and I'm being greedy, which is unfair," they said."That hurts, I'm a person with feelings. I still have to do the potholes, electric bills, I will still be out of pocket after all this."If it wasn't for the abuse, I wouldn't do it. It breaks your heart."I bought this place when it was shut down, rescued it, got the place back to five-stars. Now the three businesses are here and it's ticking over."It's a busy place in a good location. If you go to Roseberry Topping, you pay to park, I've been a cancer patient for five years, I pay to park at the hospital."It's free to park in the road, if people want the car park they pay a small fee."

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