A BID to ease Osmotherley's parking crisis has hit another dead end.

The parish council's hopes of using church land as a car park were dashed a second time this week by a letter from the Archbishop of York's office.

The council had written to the archbishop to appeal against a decision made last month by the Diocese of York's property, trust and investment committee, which had decided that the sale or lease of a piece of land of the end of the village for parking would not be in the best financial interests of the diocese.

The Archbishop's office's reply said: "After making inquiries into the decision by the committee, I don't feel it is necessary for me to intervene personally."

But parish council chairman Howard Higgs said this was not the end of the road.

"We are going to go to the top of whatever tree we need to find out why we can't have this little piece of land," he said. "A car park there would ease parking problems immensely and something certainly has to be done. We are disappointed, but I'm optimistic that eventually the church will come round. We just need to keep pushing."

There had been suggestions that parking in the village should be made residents-only, but Coun Higgs said this would not be in the interests of the shops and pubs.

"We don't want to discourage people from visiting here," he said. "The problems happen when walkers fill up the spaces early in the morning and don't return all day. People who want to stop for a cup of tea or a pint can't find anywhere to park, which damages our local businesses.

"If we had a car park specifically for visitors we could then consider residents-only parking in the village, but until then that isn't an option that would solve the difficulties."

Other parking problems were discussed with representatives from various authorities at a meeting on Tuesday.

Residents raised concerns over illegal parking along the clearways in the national park, and were told police were taking action to ticket vehicles and write warning letters to drivers.

Villagers were also shown proposals from the National Trust to alter its existing car parks, which included turning the Sheepwash car park into a picnic area and increasing the number of spaces in the central car park.

It was agreed that locals did not want to discourage visitors, but action was needed against illegal parking. Insp Simon Lovell assured residents police were aware of the difficulties.

"If people tell us there is a problem with this or anything else in this area we will respond," he said. "And if problems keep happening, people need to keep telling us until the problem stops."