No more parking costs....

joanie

I've been thinking.... I spend £3.50 a day to park my car 200 yards away from work that's £70 a month or more depending on the number of work days in a month!

I can actally park free on a side street about .75 miles away - say 15 mins walk? It would probably takes me about 8 minutes to walk to the car and drive through the town centre to where i am going to park - so it's really only about 7 minutes longer.

So with 34 working days to the end of the year - I could save £119 and get a bit healthier in the process.


(slight waver while I think am I going to post this:o GULP! here goes.)

anyone want to join me?

GreyQueen

Hi joanie, as someone who works for a local authority, I would urge you to check beforehand that your proposed parking street isn't zoned for residential permit parking.

If it is, you're gonna get a ticket, which isn't very MSE.:(

My city has lots of these zones and anywhere within about 1.5 miles of the centre is zoned like this.

There should be on-street signs to tell you if it is, so have a good look around first. If not sure, quick call to the local authority should clarify.

You might find yourself on the end of some dirty looks from residents if you take up street-space in their road of 8 hours or so per day, though. And persistant parking in residential streets by commuters and shoppers tends to cause residents to lobby the council to be put on permit parking.

An intermediate option which would cost something, but a lot less than £3.50 per day is to see if you can rent a garage from the council, or a garage or parking space from a private householder. HTH.

thriftwizard

Can't join you as I've gone the whole hog & work from home now. But it's exactly what OH does; sometime he even parks 4 miles away & runs the rest of the way, for the exercise, but that really is a bit keen if you ask me. Anyway - good for you!

hilstep2000

I used to work at a school and parked in a side street. One lady objected to me parking outside her house, but I paid my car tax and there were no residents permits or yellow lines, so she couldn't do anything about it.
Good for you, let;s hope you get fitter and richer!

joanie

Thanks GreyQueen. I've checked and that's why the nearest I can get is .75 miles away.... any closer and it's resident permits or metered.

Thriftwizard - you're scaring me now with talk of running!!!!

valerie57

Great advice Grey Queen. I urge you to think about the impact on the residents. Have you considered parkatmyhouse?

rachbc

Nearest I could get was 2 miles - I did it for 2 years but as I use my car for work they eventually realised the beenfit of me getting a parking permit rather than adding an our of wasted time everytime I needed to go out of the office

starsandmoon

hilstep2000 wrote: »

I used to work at a school and parked in a side street. One lady objected to me parking outside her house, but I paid my car tax and there were no residents permits or yellow lines, so she couldn't do anything about it.
Good for you, let;s hope you get fitter and richer!

I know someone who did this and when asked nicely to park somewhere else as the resident quite rightly wanted to park by where they live told them to get lost and was most surprised to find their car vandalised one day and no witnesses! A few months later the area was residents permits only.

I work for a local authority and we pay to park in a secure council staff car park. Works out about £1 a day and everyone is happy. Council staff can park quickly and safely and local residents can park outside their houses although most of the area is residents permits anyway.

In my city I know a little spot you can park for free but its in a very quiet lonely spot and would be quite scary on a dark night! Personal safety could be an issue if its somewhere out of the way.

lostinrates

valerie57 wrote: »

Great advice Grey Queen. I urge you to think about the impact on the residents. Have you considered parkatmyhouse?

Most residents in central towns or cities are realistic that they cannot expect 'their' spot, which is why off street parking is such a boon and. Adds to a house's value. Its unfortunate if hoardes of people 'take' all the available parking, but then the area tends to become permit only, so then the residents have 'their' parking back.

Parking is one thing, we used to live in a street with a school in it, the mothers arranging their social schedule and playdates by tellilng from one end of the street to the other was infinitely worse I promise, that struggling to find a parking space.

joanie

I should be ok.... the place I am parking only has residents on one side of the street and a small park on the other (where I aim to be). As it's a straight walk up the main street I should be safe enough even in the dark nights and mornings.

V_Chic_Chick

Or you could just cycle in (once you get used to it, 6 miles commuting each way by bike, uphill into work, with a manual job, isn't a big deal. And I say this as someone who definitely isn't conventionally sporty! No parking costs, ever, and no fuel costs...

Alternatively, get a Brompton or other folding bike, put it into the back of your car, park outside the city centre / RPZ and offset the cost with the money saved by not paying for parking, and the time saved by not walking...