Parking Delays For Christmas Shoppers
Southampton's been named as one of five towns and cities where waiting times for a parking space are the longest.
Parking rather than picking presents is the biggest bugbear for Christmas shoppers, according to a survey.
More than a third have waited more than 30 minutes for a parking space during the festive period, the poll by AXA car insurance found.
Wrexham topped the waiting list, with 18% of those surveyed having had to wait more than 90 minutes for a space in the North Wales town.
Wrexham was also the worst spot for car park driving etiquette, while drivers in Glasgow were the most considerate.
Other towns where festive drivers faced long waits were Aberystwyth in Wales, Worcester, Southampton and Glasgow.
The shortest queues were to be found in Wolverhampton, York, Liverpool and Chelmsford in Essex.
The poll of 2,000 adults also revealed that a third had driven the wrong way around a car park, 20% drove around too fast, 12% raced a driver to a spare space and 7% tried to nip in while another driver attempted to park.
As many as 25% had witnessed a bump-or-scrape incident in a car park, with only 34% saying they enjoyed the experience of Christmas shopping in towns and cities.
AXA spokeswoman Amanda Edwards said: "Christmas can be stressful and shopping is definitely up there when it comes to raising the blood pressure.
"But don't add to the bill by damaging your car with a bit of reckless car park behaviour. Most of the many bumps that occur really can be avoided quite easily."
