How to deter people from having their front gardens turned into parking

JammieDodger

Hi all,

I realise this is a completely different type of parking question but I need the help from the population of Britain to come up with ideas to solve it! I'm sure we're not the only road in the country with this problem.

We live on a residential road which joins the High Street at either end. We are near all the shops, pubs, supermarkets, cinema etc and walking distance to the station. We're very lucky with public transport too.

The trouble is with finding somewhere to park. The road is big enough, but so many people have had their front gardens paved in to make a driving space for 2 cars, that there are hardly any parking spaces left in the street for the shoppers/visitors/care workers/other residents.

The council aren't helping, so we have to tell them what we want done about it as we have a massive Government grant coming our way to help re-generate the area.

1) Does anyone know of any schemes that deters commuters parking in areas, that doesn't include residential parking permits etc? We want genuine shoppers, but not people who park their cars in the road for businesses etc.

2) So many of the households have their front gardens paved in and don't have a car! How can we prevent this from happening? Does anyone know of a council that charges 'rent' to households that have a yellow line outside?

3) What would encourage you to turn your paved driveway back into a lovely garden?

I remember reading somewhere that the more trees/vegetation there is, the less likely people are to park there. Also, we could use the white courtesy lines so that people who don't know don't park there, and we still can without fear of getting a ticket.

Does the lighting also deter people from parking? I'm sure I've read in the same article that the direction of the lighting makes a difference to people wanting to park in a quiet residential road. Does anyone have any ideas? Any research out there?

The other thing to note is that every single house has access to their own garage and/or off-street parking around the back of the house on private land (these are terraced houses) so how do we encourage people to park their cars safely behind the gardens, and not take up precious road space?

Yes, we have lost more than 50% of our trees/shrubs/plants and therefore the birds have disappeared from our gardens.

Yes, we all continue to get unfair parking tickets, which as we all know, are not necessarily given because we are illegally parked! The yellow lines are driving away shoppers from our High Street!

JammieD

AlexisV

Parking bays with limited times (say 2 hours) and no return-periods are usually good for shoppers. Why aren't shoppers coming to the high street at the moment?

Not sure you can prevent people from paving their gardens, but seems a bit daft if you have no car.

Trebor16

I wonder if the OP means those who have paved their gardens have also had dropped kerbs put in as well?

Coupon-mad

AlexisV wrote: »

Parking bays with limited times (say 2 hours) and no return-periods are usually good for shoppers. Why aren't shoppers coming to the high street at the moment?

Not sure you can prevent people from paving their gardens, but seems a bit daft if you have no car.

Yep, I would suggest that too, or single yellow lines on both sides but with just one hour of parking restriction, a different hour on each side. This stops commuters in our area but allows people to use shops, or take the dog/kids to the park all morning or all afternoon - as long as they choose the correct side of the street.

It works near me; the road in question has no parking on one side between 11.30 and 12.30, and on the other side of the road it's no parking between 2.30 and 3.30. Clearly signed and the single yellow line makes people check anyway.

TrickyWicky

JammieDodger wrote: »

1) Does anyone know of any schemes that deters commuters parking in areas, that doesn't include residential parking permits etc? We want genuine shoppers, but not people who park their cars in the road for businesses etc.

Limited waiting (2 hour bays as suggested above). You need decriminalised parking in your area to be operating as police traffic wardens don't care about enforcing LW bays.

JammieDodger wrote: »

2) So many of the households have their front gardens paved in and don't have a car! How can we prevent this from happening? Does anyone know of a council that charges 'rent' to households that have a yellow line outside?

Rent for what?- You can't charge someone rent for having a drive on their property. If thats what the residents want in their property then its their right and they have the right to a dropped kerb and for it to be kept clear (only if there isn't a kerbed parking bay which is inset from the side of the road).

JammieDodger wrote: »

3) What would encourage you to turn your paved driveway back into a lovely garden?

In areas where parking is tight pretty much nothing. If you're joined onto the high street and you drive a car and need to park it in the day then clearly the most advantageous place to park is your own property. Some people may not currently have their own car but they may be planning to get one or have family around etc and may therefore still have a legitimate use for their own driveway. Plus some people also let out their drives these days too.

In short, there isn't much you can do and if I'm really honest, you're actually making yourself sound like a busy body minding the neighbourhoods business trying to tell them how to live their lives and it won't make you very popular. I hope that doesn't cause any offence as thats not intended I'm just trying to say how others may see it before you get yourself into hot water. I know you care for your local high street but the councils themselves are responsible for killing them with high car park charges and them giving permission for large shopping centres. I certainly agree with a lot of what you've said but you can't go round demanding people dig up their valuable driveway parking and converting it to a garden eye candy just to keep you sweet because they'll get the ump with you.

JammieDodger

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Limited waiting (2 hour bays as suggested above). You need decriminalised parking in your area to be operating as police traffic wardens don't care about enforcing LW bays.

This is what we're trying to avoid - we don't want to have loads of rules around for the parking because it's what we have at the moment and it's completely killing all the parking areas because everyone is so confused about where they can park for how long etc. The council has put signs at the beginning and end of the road, so unless you know the area, you can't park and know what the waiting times are.

>>Rent for what?- You can't charge someone rent for having a drive on their property. If thats what the residents want in their property then its their right and they have the right to a dropped kerb and for it to be kept clear (only if there isn't a kerbed parking bay which is inset from the side of the road).<<

You can charge people for the space they're taking up in the road outside though. If everyone else is made to pay to park in the road, why shouldn't residents be made to pay for the the yellow line? How come if I park there I'm charged £5 but they park 6 feet closer to their house and they don't have to pay anything?

>>In areas where parking is tight pretty much nothing. If you're joined onto the high street and you drive a car and need to park it in the day then clearly the most advantageous place to park is your own property.
<<

An excellent point - which is why it infuriates me that that they have their driveways paved in when they have garages and off street parking at the back of the house!

>>Some people may not currently have their own car but they may be planning to get one or have family around etc and may therefore still have a legitimate use for their own driveway. Plus some people also let out their drives these days too.<<

Again, if you're making money out of having a paved driveway, then you can pay to have the yellow line there in the first place. Most of the people who have their front gardens paved in are the elderly who don't own cars anymore. The other owners are people who have had their gardens paved in then realised they don't want to look out the window to see their car, so park their car in the road anyway. Charging them rent for their yellow line would encourage them to park their cars on their paved driveway instead of taking up a parking space for someone who really needs it.

>>In short, there isn't much you can do and if I'm really honest, you're actually making yourself sound like a busy body minding the neighbourhoods business trying to tell them how to live their lives and it won't make you very popular.>>

Clearly this isn't something I'm worried about! I'm trying to make changes here, and I need feasible ideas of how to do that constructively, hence gathering ideas on here.

>> I hope that doesn't cause any offence as thats not intended I'm just trying to say how others may see it before you get yourself into hot water. >>

This will surprise you, but most of the residents DON'T want to have a paved front garden, but they feel they have to because of the lack of parking... thus it becomes a vicious circle which I need a way of breaking.

BTW, I'm asking this on behalf of the local residents' association, who are trying to put together a plan to make everyone happy. Again, it's fishing for ideas at the moment.

<<I know you care for your local high street but the councils themselves are responsible for killing them with high car park charges and them giving permission for large shopping centres. >>

Ah ha! I did a poll of all the car parks here and they're surprisingly cheap for inner London. The station car park was £3.50 a day, which I think is bl**dy cheap! There is even one station that charges just £1 a day and at 8am still had 10 spaces left, so I don't think that the high charges for parking are a valid excuse.

<<I certainly agree with a lot of what you've said but you can't go round demanding people dig up their valuable driveway parking and converting it to a garden eye candy just to keep you sweet because they'll get the ump with you.

>>

Ah but my point is, if I could persuade you to convert it back into a garden, what would it take?? If we had someone pay for your garden to be re-landscaped, or if we gave you a cash incentive, would that encourage you? What makes your parking space outside your house so precious that you could never give it up?

I'm still looking for trick-of-the-eye techniques for parking. Would you be less likely or more likely to park in a road with massive over-hanging trees, or if there was bad lighting, does that put you off parking on a residential road?

JD

JammieDodger

Trebor16 wrote: »

I wonder if the OP means those who have paved their gardens have also had dropped kerbs put in as well?

Yes, there are dropped curbs as well. Did I mention they also have off street parking and double garage around the back of their properties, if only they would just use them!

JammieDodger

AlexisV wrote: »

Parking bays with limited times (say 2 hours) and no return-periods are usually good for shoppers. Why aren't shoppers coming to the high street at the moment?

Not sure you can prevent people from paving their gardens, but seems a bit daft if you have no car.

Trying to prevent them from paving the gardens is what I'm looking for, just getting ideas of how it might be done.

Shoppers aren't coming to the area because one particular insurance company owns all the buildings in the High St and have put the rent up. The shops are going bust. There's noting the council can do about the rent, but we are working with the businesses to get more shoppers in, and to encourage and financially help new businesses. It's the other side of this parking problem.

JD

TrickyWicky

JammieDodger wrote: »

>>

Ah but my point is, if I could persuade you to convert it back into a garden, what would it take?? If we had someone pay for your garden to be re-landscaped, or if we gave you a cash incentive, would that encourage you? What makes your parking space outside your house so precious that you could never give it up?

I'm still looking for trick-of-the-eye techniques for parking. Would you be less likely or more likely to park in a road with massive over-hanging trees, or if there was bad lighting, does that put you off parking on a residential road?

JD

I can see you totally ignored my previous advice..

Nothing would convince me to convert my private parking into a garden just to keep some busy body in the neighbourhood happy. Thats just the way it is. Parking is at a premium these days - there aren't enough places to put cars and even when you don't have one you can still allow others to use your drive.

Trees make no difference in parking except for times of high wind.

As I tried to suggest to you before, going round your neighbourhood asking people to turn their drives into gardens to keep YOU happy will get you a bad name. People will see you as an interfering busy body with nothing better to do than to try and rule other peoples lives.

brightonman123

our road has becoming bit of a rat run, and several front gardens have changed to parking spaces-

if not to avoid on street parking charges / ongoing risk of damage from passing cars, but i guess to make their house more appealing when it ever comes time to sell..

given a choice between 2 houses, 1 with off street parking, and 1 w/out, which would you choose?

Coupon-mad

No-one in their right mind would convert a driveway back to a garden if it was an area where parking was at a premium. Not only because it makes their life more convenient - even if they have no car then they must have visitors who can use the driveway.

But also because it would add to the value and saleability of the house overall in future. It would be like asking someone to tear down their loft conversion and return it to an attic just because their kids have grown up and gone to Uni!

But to answer your question, the only thing that deters me from parking on street is Council greed in the form of meters, or double yellows or a similar restriction - I drive on. A few trees on an unrestricted road would make no difference at all.