New parking restrictions - cannot park outside my home

fredy5

Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct place to post but hopefully someone knowledgeable about these things can help.

I live in a a long row of terraced houses on a back street. There is enough room to park one car per house and 4 times out of 5 I get to park right outside, or have to park 30 feet away perhaps if not.:)

But! The wise council want to yellow line half the road because of congestion at peak times. When I objected on the grounds of not being able to park my car they say that consideration of people's ability to park 'on street' is not in their remit, only safety, traffic flow etc. So basically when this is done half the street will have to park in neighbouring streets and 1 annoy neighbours and 2 move the congestion somewhere else.:p

So, how do I object with a better reason? ... because owning a car isn't one. In fact they said that the problem was too many cars, rather than not enough parking. :mad:

Strider590

Sounds to me like a classic case of stopping people parking for free (to go shopping or to work), in order to herd people into the pay and display carparks.

They did this pretty much all around Worcester, I don't think there's a single free parking spot within 2 miles.
When people left in the morning to head to work, somebody else would take that space and by the time they get home, the space is free again. Everyone's a winner right???

But this isn't getting people into the pay and display carparks every day, a loss to the council of £1000 per car, per year. So they past this by closing all the roads to parking and then issuing the odd street here and there with permits.

vax2002

Its all about money, your just the mug with the wallet.

WestonDave

To be fair cars have progressively got wider so that narrower roads are now becoming difficult for larger vehicles to get down. You'd object quick enough if they said the bus/bin lorry/fire engine was no longer going to come down your street due to the parking.

Are they going for single yellow or double yellow? I ask because they have proposed a single yellow on one side of a road near me, but with with the effective hours only being 10am to 3pm - the idea being that it stops commuter parking but allows people to park before and after work. If they aren't going to put double yellows down it might be worth pushing for more useful hours - e.g. 9am or 8:30am rather than 8am to 5pm or 5:30pm rather than 6pm.

I do however agree with Strider - its a creeping process. Our problem is created by the nearby hospital. The hospital is happy to build more parking but the planners won't let them because they want to discourage car use - in reality people still drive but clog surrounding roads to the point where the residents ask for residents permits which shoves the problem on.

Lum

WestonDave wrote: »

I do however agree with Strider - its a creeping process. Our problem is created by the nearby hospital. The hospital is happy to build more parking but the planners won't let them because they want to discourage car use - in reality people still drive but clog surrounding roads to the point where the residents ask for residents permits which shoves the problem on.

Oh god, don't start me on hospital parking. I always end up having to park in a residential street next to the Royal Gwent Hospital due to the lack of parking. At the moment it's even worse due to construction work, it's disabled parking only and there still aren't enough spaces.

At least the council were a bit more sensible about restricting the residential street. they made one half the street resident permit holders only and the other half max 2 hours during the day, except for resident permit holders.

You can struggle to get a space during visiting hours but for outpatient appointments it's mostly fine, and the traffic wardens generally take a common sense approach to things.

patman99

As long as you remember to cover your number plates, you have nothing to worry about. For a CEO to read the reg. no., they would need to touch the cover, thus committing a criminal offence.

Seriously though, find out if the lines are time-restricted or whether the parking limitations are 24 hour.
You may have other grounds for objecting such as 'requiring a daily visit from a nurse due to a long-term medical condition' through to being 'unable to walk more than 100 metres'. Any objection works well when you involve your neighbours. Get them all to write and object. This will tie-down the Council as they have to log and respond to all letters within a given time-frame.

Btw, are there any lines on the opposite side of the road?.

Notmyrealname

patman99 wrote: »

As long as you remember to cover your number plates, you have nothing to worry about. For a CEO to read the reg. no., they would need to touch the cover, thus committing a criminal offence.

Citation needed.

Alternatively they could just read the reg number off the tax disc or phone the Police who will then either do you for not displaying a numberplate or tow your vehicle and then do you for not displaying a numberplate.

Queries

Dear fredy5, how are about you and your neighbours suggest a residents parking scheme? This means that the council would issue car-owning residents - and their visitors with permits - renewable yearly (via application - this is important to know, otherwise you and your residents may receive a parking-ticket for not displaying a valid permit). The council putting-up a sign saying 'Residents Parking Only' between say 8.00am and 8.00pm would be (probably cheaper), than a yellow line. Also, anybody parking there would receive a ticket, thus congestion would, surely, as a result be avoided?

Lithian

patman99 wrote: »

As long as you remember to cover your number plates, you have nothing to worry about. For a CEO to read the reg. no., they would need to touch the cover, thus committing a criminal offence.

"The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001" has that option tied up in a few ways, the plate must be photographable and the letters clear. Also the number would be on the VED disc and a failure to display that is also an offence. (except the time they give you for ordering online)

Lorian

Complain to your local councellor.

patman99

As the tax disc is not permanently fixed to the vehicle, it cannot be treated as being accurate.
As for covering your plates, Jamiroqui does it all the time when parking his car on double yellows.
Also do the same myself when parking my van outside customers houses. Came back from a shop once to witness 2 CEOs walking around it desperately trying to find a way to read the number plate. When I asked why they didn't simply lift the bit of cardboard up, I was told "can't do that. We would be committing a criminal offence".

The offense of obscuring your number plate only applies to moving vehicles. This is because otherwise it would be illegal to put a full frost cover on your car when parked on the street.