Ongoing parking problems within the village have resulted in additional measures being introduced to the Greyfriar's pub car park - by the introduction of wheel clamping

Peter Whitehead, publican at the Greyfriar explains the reasons for this change.

With the ongoing parking issues in the village we have been forced to protect our lively hood by protecting our parking assets and making them exclusive to the pub. Regularly customers tell us that they have not stayed in the village due to insufficient parking, moreover on most of these occasions we have not been very busy! So on balance the signage is pretty ugly, however this is governed by law and substantially out of our hands, and, If I and other attractions in the village could control our customers behaviour before entering the establishments I am sure we all would, just be thankful the pub is what it is and not a music venue or heavy drinkers pub, I am sure the disruption of unruly drunkenness would be far worse than the present problems.

Since the impact of this change will affect parking for other residents and attractions, please will pubgoers park in the pubs car park and not on the street where possible, so that the best use of the limited parking within the village is achieved. This also applies to the village hall, where the dedicated car park is for hall users, as covered in the conditions of hire.

There are no easy or quick solutions to increasing the parking within the village. As the village design statement (2004) concluded in it analysis of traffic issues on page 22.

As a classic Hampshire village that is popular with tourists nationally and internationally, that contains a pub and a thiving school, Chawton must accept that parking will always be an issue.

Peter has advised that the existing arrangement for parents on the morning and afternoon school run remains in place, since this happens at times when the pub is closed or relatively quiet and it helps to improve road safety outside the school by reducing the number of cars in the area. There is however no provision for parking during evening events, where alternative parking arrangements must be sought.