PARKING, Student House Double Yellow Lines

[Lady_K]

My daughter is a Student Nurse and is staying in student accomodation. She has up to now been able to park in a nearby carpark to her student house but its just been changed to a private car park and is now displaying signs saying you will be clamped if parking there.

On her student house street where she is staying there are double yellow lines will this mean she cannot apply for residents parking there? If she can what will a residents parking permit give her?

As she is a student nurse she needs the car in order to get to different hospitals at all times of the day and night so this is making things very difficult for her as she relies on the car for her course.

Since the changes she has had to park her car in a secluded street far away from her student house. This means she has to park there alone, during awkward hours because of her shifts where I consider her safety to be at risk, then she has to walk a long way back to her student house. On top of that she has the worry of leaving her car so far away and in such an easy target secluded street but there is nowhere else to park. If anything happened to her car it would seriously affect her course.

I was already concerned for the safety of my daughter and her car because her student house and quite a few others around that area have been burgled recently. This has made her very nervous and having to do this is just bringing a whole lot more worry for both her and myself.

She did say that she saw a pay car park run by the coucil now but this is very expensive and for a resident student nurse there is no way she can afford to pay that and I cannot help with this as I am dissabled and not in work

Do you think theres any solution to this?

[suffolkb]

There should be a plate on the lamposts in the street explaining when you can park (if at all). All a residents permit does is allow you to park in the allocated areas. If all the spaces are already full, then tough. This often happens in London where a street can have many flats and everyone can have a permit, but there won`t be enough spaces for everyone. Owning a car does not guarantee you a parking space I`m afraid.
Can she buy a season ticket for the car park?. I nearly bought a flat in Sheffield that had no allocated parking, but you could park in the NCP park next door. It was over £1000 pa so I didn`t bother.

[rdwarr]

I know how you feel. When my daughter was a student in Lincoln she always had to park two streets down.
To be honest the only real solution is to move to accommodation where there's parking available. Whether that's worthwhile or not will depend on how much longer she has to be in the area.

[Lady_K]

Hi

I have rang the council today and they have told me definitely no residents parking and the council run car park in the middle of the street is almost £100 per month!!! so thats £1000 a year. I know its near the center but she lives there as a tenant and I think seeing as they wont allow residents parking they should allow the tenants a very big discount to park in that car park, its not as though they are using it to go shopping or anything so its quite different when they live there. She said they cant pick and choose who to discount so everyone is treated the same but I think it is very very unfair, to me they arent treated the same because others don't live there.

I rang the local counselor who told me he didnt know of any other way around it but to ring the uni for advice. He told me though that the council employees get very hefty discounts for parking in these car parks and this seems extremely unfair on people living in those streets.

I'm ringing the uni tomorrow but doubt there will be much we can do, there should be changes made so the council can at east see the residents right on this. They don't seem to care, the costs are extortionate! How can it be right that she would pay more for a piece of concrete than for the actual house rent shes paying for her student accomodation

I think I might write to the local paper about it

[Lady_K]

The council parking dept manager was really not a very nice person at all and in fact was quite rude so no help there

I rang the police to ask advice on where they thought maybe the safer places to park in the area are seeing as shes a young girl and going to and from the car at all hours with her nursing placement. The police woman I spoke to said she had lived in the area all her life and even she wouldnt want to be going through those streets alone as its not safe round there and nowhere is really safe. Whatever shes going to have at least a 15 minute walk from anywhere she could park. The only place she has found is some derelict land, its quite dark there so naturally I'm worried and 15 min walk. The policewoman told me to ring the university to ask if they knew of anything to help, the man at the uni was not really interested and said so what if shes a young girl I'm a man it makes no difference I can get attacked just the same as she can. I understand what he means but hes not coming and going at all hours and hes not in that position

She has found another property to move to in another 5 months time as shes tied into a contract and if she moved now shed still have to pay the rent. The new house will be residents parking its closer to the uni rather than the center where she is now. Its just about impossible to get a property with parking I'm just hoping she will be ok there but in the mean time she has 5 months of this parking problem here and its bad

[lellie]

If you own a car you don't move to somewhere without allocated parking in a city. It's an essential part of looking for a property. I think you're asking a lot - free parking is few and far between and it's something she will have to consider paying for. When looking for flats if there was no parking we wouldn't live there - simple as that. You often pay higher rent for the space, but it's worth it.

I think your daughter is stuck with having to walk long distances.. Is there somewhere she can park that's on a bus route - which might be safer than walking on her own at night?

Just make sure she has a steering wheel lock, removes her stereo and ALL valuables etc when she leaves her car.

Another idea might be to find out if there is any parking available at the uni at night - she might have to pay - but our uni car parks have a discounted rate for overnight. There should be good and relatively safe bus routes or whatever from the uni so she may be able to get back safer.

[Lady_K]

She lives too far from uni to park anywhere there overnight and they dont allow parking in the day there. She moved to this place because there was that car park there and it had been there for years so it was a shock when it was taken over by a private company. They have brought it for a group of houses around it which doesnt include my daughters house so it wasnt that she didnt check parking out before she moved in. Its just unfortunate the way its happened

We didnt expect it to be free parking but it just seems extremely high charges at almost £100 a month and the council car park is in the same street as she is a resident. Its not even a secure car park its just open ground. Even if there was a bus route from somewhere she could park they arent going to be running when she comes back from some of her nursing shifts plus she couldnt go to uni in the morning without checking on it etc. I don't like her having to walk back and forth as people know will be carrying stuff she wouldnt want to leave in her car and theres a lot of crime round there. She could even be going to her car at 4am sometimes to get to some of her shifts on her placements, the last one was 1.5 hours each way travelling

I am going to ring the number that she has taken from the signs on the car park that has just been taken over by the private company and ask if there may be a chance she could pay them to park there till she moves to the other place in 5 months. Its a long shot but its worth a try. Its not a local number though from looking on the net the code is for miles and miles away in middlesex kent or somewhere

I'm not sure how residents parking works in the next house though

[emmajg]

not sure if this is working in your daughters area but worth a look?
I saw a arcticle on bbc website this morning http://www.youcanpark.com/index.aspx

[Lady_K]

Thanx Emma :)

That looks very useful none in her area yet but I've signed up anyway to be notified. I'm sure even if its not in her area its useful for when shes in other places and when she leaves uni

[Wig]

the man at the uni was not really interested and said so what if shes a young girl I'm a man it makes no difference I can get attacked just the same as she can. I understand what he means but hes not coming and going at all hours and hes not in that position

I don't think his attitude was very professional.
Write a letter of complaint to the Dean (of the University) point out that women are the target of sex attackers, and males are not. A lone woman would be more likely to be attacked than a lone man even if the crime is purely for monetary gain.

In the same letter you can bring up the subject of the unsafe parking for your daughter. And you could ask the Dean if his university runs a "Be Safe" awareness campaign with free personal attack alarms provided to his students.

Is there any garden or small area available at the student house? if so is it big enough and haveaccess enough for a moped?
She could change her mode of transport to a moped. Will need a CBT test certificate.

Failing that she could put a bike into the boot of her car (what car is it) I know someone who puts a bike into the boot of a Renault Clio everyday for work. She'd be much safer on a bicycle than walking.

There is also one of these ikea bikes on ebay, but it might take too long to unfold it and set it up to make it a practical suggestion, but then again perhaps it is small enough to fit in the boot without having to fold it up, easier maybe than a full size mountain bike.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.co.uk%2Fws %2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=ikea+bike&category0=

[Lady_K]

Thanx I know I thought he was terrible really. He was very bolshy and stressed its sex equality now. I'll ask her about the be safe campaign but I'm sure she would have told me about it before though.

She has a bike but her placements are too far for that it doesnt fold up though either

Tried the car park owner no spaces available but he did say ifhe did have he would have let her rent it out

Good job when shes moved out I think :)

[dag]

Thanks for the posts, you haven't said which town it is yet, but it's clear from your general level of worry that it can't be a very nice one.

Apologies if this isn't particularly helpful, but here's how I see it. If the streets are as dangerous during the night as you say they are, then very few people will want to live in that area, which means that there will be a lot of empty properties. So it should be relatively easy to find another flat with better parking.

On the other hand, if vacant properties are few and far between, then it suggests that it's a much more desirable area, dare I say middle-class, which suggests that the streets probably aren't as dangerous as you're imagining them to be.

Okay I realise that's a gross oversimplification! I realise your daughter has gone through the rigmarole of finding a suitable flat once already, but I honestly can't see any other practical way of solving the problem apart from moving.

I notice you say she will be moving in five months time. My advice is, try to avoid getting tied into such long terms next time round. If units in the area are hard to let, then I can understand landlords trying to tie tenants in for a long time. But on the other hand, it puts your daughter in a powerful position to be able to haggle them down.

My other advice would be to see if there's any other way she can quit her current tenancy early without being held liable for the rest of the rent. Has the agreement been drawn up properly? And is it legally enforceable?

If you can't find a way of wriggling out of the tenancy, then the landlord might let your daughter out early if she can find a replacement tenant - though, again, if it's a low-demand area, then this is going to be easier said than done.

Hope that helps, keep us informed.

[anewman]

On the other hand, if vacant properties are few and far between, then it suggests that it's a much more desirable area, dare I say middle-class, which suggests that the streets probably aren't as dangerous as you're imagining them to be.
I disagree with this point. Even in crap deprived areas people will live there. That's why rent prices differ and house prices. Just in crap areas you get dodgey people who watch jeremy kyle, steal car stereos, and sign on for a living. A price of £90 PCM will get a place in the worst of areas rented out with relative ease.

[Lady_K]

Thanx

She is not at the hospital this weekend so she has come back and brought her work with her. We were watching the news tonight and low and behold it comes on that on her very street and various streets around it all very close theres a serial attacker. It was warning people this particular man has been attacking females sexually, violently and sometimes robbing them etc

She told me that there are a lot of muggings anyway and lots of mobile phones stolen even in midday they just run by and take them. Lots of cars smashed up and stolen god its such a worry. She has said if she has to go out on the way back she will park to unload the car before going to park it so she isnt seen taking out her car stereo and things or bags on her and same on the way to her car.

She has tried to get someone to take her tenancy but students are all set up now and dont usually move at this time of year. The area now is mostly students and it is actually quite hard to find propertys despite the place being the way it is. As they are students they come not really knowing the area and only find out once they are actually living there what its really like.

The new place in 5 months for next year the street is mostly residential and a few students so hopefully it wont be as bad. Its going to be an access only road but she passes it on the way to uni and she thinks the parking will be ok there

No wonder the policewoman I spoke to was concerned