Off street parking provision

[Fenlander]

plus there's the problem that no one makes an EV that my wife likes (yet).

Yes, I would also like it if the EVs didn't look like children's toys - the designers at Renualt/Nissan and BMW have a lot to answer for....

I'm happy with the car I've got (MINI Clubman diesel) and my lease is up at the end of the year, at the moment I'm looking at either the same again or the Countryman. The Countryman is available as a hybrid but the Clubman isn't yet. If there were an EV version I'd be having a very close look at it.
Similarly with my wife, she loved her old Beetle and loves her current Juke, she does predictable local driving which would suit an EV nicely but she also does a 200mile visit to family where there's also no suitable parking, she's lucky to be in the same street sometimes.

[Reading]

Before anyone says public transport, the pedestrianised bit of town doesn't have a bus route serving it, the town bus has reduced its frequency and the bus route that brings people in from the villages is due to be axed since Stagecoach bought out the old route provider and is now 'cost saving'.

Yep, standard policy. The council planners decide everyone can use the bus and the councillors endorse it in committee and full council, but the same councillors won't allocate money to the subsidy necessary to keep the private firms running them.

Nationalise the bus companies along with rail, make it state run everywhere!

In Reading we have a bus company with the council as a major shareholder and it seems to work well - there is also fairly draconian guidance on parking provision - http://www.reading.gov.uk/media/2449/Re ... cument.pdf see pg15 for domestic property rules, for instance a 4+ bedroom home is 2 spaces in all but the most outlying sreas (where it is 3) and the developers will do their utmost to shrink it below that if they can.

[KeithW]

Nationalise the bus companies along with rail, make it state run everywhere!

Those of us who remember how that worked may not be so keen. In Middlesbrough we had competition between 2 companies, the red buses of United and the green and blue buses of Middlesbrough and Stockton Corporation transport. It was a rather good system with United operating on the longer distance routes. The reasons people look back on the 60's and 70's as the good old days is simply that ar more people depended on them so traffic and hence income was higher. With local councils authorising routes they had more clout when it came to maintaining less profitable services.

What happened when the buses were nationalised is that a whole new layer of bureaucracy was imposed which imposed under a system called the "Market Analysis Project". This required each operator to do a Beeching style survey of existing and potential new demands and rearrange local networks to reflect the results, indicating to local authorities those services requiring subsidy. As part of this process bus routes, bus stops, timetables and publicity all had to be rearranged at great cost and inconvenience. Where I was living at the time on the coast from Littlestone to Dungeness was that in winter we lost our winter Sunday service completely and the winter weekly service was cut to 2 per day each way. This meant that if you wanted to travel to New Romney where the nearest supermarket was you were left for up to 4 hourse to catch a bus back. These routes were only restored after the company was privatised at the end of the 80's. I usually ended up walking - which was 3 1/2 miles which is a long way to lug several bags of shopping but then I was still in my 30's and reasonably fit.

[Fenlander]

see pg15 for domestic property rules, for instance a 4+ bedroom home is 2 spaces in all but the most outlying sreas (where it is 3) and the developers will do their utmost to shrink it below that if they can.

Our previous house was always described as "4 bed + study", I never looked into it but I always assumed that if they called it a 5th bedroom then it would have triggered a rule like that. We used it as a bedroom.

[Chris Bertram]

Those of us who remember how that worked may not be so keen. In Middlesbrough we had competition between 2 companies, the red buses of United and the green and blue buses of Middlesbrough and Stockton Corporation transport. It was a rather good system with United operating on the longer distance routes.

The Corporation buses later became Cleveland Transit, but were still confined principally to the Teesside county borough area even after 1974. We moved up there in 1976, and at first lived in Guisborough, and scarcely saw any Transit buses. Later on, we moved out to Easington (the one near Loftus), and United were the only show in town. But remember that United were part of the National Bus Company, and operating longer distance routes was what they did best. I moved to Birmingham in 1983. WMPTE had a near-monopoly on the urban routes, but rarely ran out of county. The various branches of NBC subsidiary Midland Red (North, West and South - East served the East Midlands) ran to places like Stratford and Oxford, and only made limited stops before exiting the county.

[Norfolktolancashire]

There is no off-road parking at all where I live being terraced housing. The council have designated sections of the road as resident parking only which has stopped daytime workers parking from the nearby offices, however the annual fee for a permit has risen from £10 a few years ago to nearly £50 due to the councils financial issues.
As for having an EV vehicle it isn't happening as there is no chance of running a lead across the pavement!

[A9NWIL]

see pg15 for domestic property rules, for instance a 4+ bedroom home is 2 spaces in all but the most outlying sreas (where it is 3) and the developers will do their utmost to shrink it below that if they can.

Our previous house was always described as "4 bed + study", I never looked into it but I always assumed that if they called it a 5th bedroom then it would have triggered a rule like that. We used it as a bedroom.

Ah a loophole! I would tighten up the loophole by saying that if a room could be used as another bedroom then that increases the official number of bedrooms if the developers like it or not.

If a room is self contained you dont have to walk though it to get to another room and its not obviously a lounge, kitchen or bathroom then its a potential bedroom, and should be recognised as such in these kind of regulations.

[A9NWIL]

Where I live is at the end of a cul-de-sac, and there is enough space if all vehicles park nicely for 13 cars round the end bit and enough room to turn another car round in the middle. Often though people arent courteous in their parking, so its very rare that you ever see 13 cars parked up where they could. There is also enough space for 5 cars along the stretch leading up to the entrance of the cul-de-sac and people often use the pavement the other side so thats another 5 potentially for a total of 23 cars, but I have never seen that happen.
There is garages in blocks not on driveways, which some people use, but they are too small for most cars, or people use them as storage, so people are forced to park on the road.
Seeing as there is 50 flats in the cul-de-sac 23 on road spaces doesnt go very far! Then some people might have two cars as well!

[Fenlander]

see pg15 for domestic property rules, for instance a 4+ bedroom home is 2 spaces in all but the most outlying sreas (where it is 3) and the developers will do their utmost to shrink it below that if they can.

Our previous house was always described as "4 bed + study", I never looked into it but I always assumed that if they called it a 5th bedroom then it would have triggered a rule like that. We used it as a bedroom.

Ah a loophole! I would tighten up the loophole by saying that if a room could be used as another bedroom then that increases the official number of bedrooms if the developers like it or not.

If a room is self contained you dont have to walk though it to get to another room and its not obviously a lounge, kitchen or bathroom then its a potential bedroom, and should be recognised as such in these kind of regulations.

I know there’s a rule in France that means a room only counts if you can stand up in it (or something like that), we rented a ski apartment once that had bedrooms shaped like tents and a mezzanine that turned out to be a very large internal balcony with no walls, just a bed and a wardrobe.

[Reading]

My house is 4+1 the 1 is officially a "weights room" as when extended by previous owners it was deemed too far from the stairs to be allowed to be a bedroom without an additional fire escape. Basically you go up the stairs turn right walk about 6' down a corridor and have bathroom door to left, our bedroom door to right and "weights room" door dead ahead. So the council could not declare us a 5 bedroom as it was their rules which stopped it being one - although it made a perfect nursery when children were young and is now a study (with a drum kit in it)

PS The floor is definitely not strong enough for anything above a dumbell and who would use weights upstairs rather than tha garage below ?

Some of the terrace roads in Reading have had parking installed by demolishing a few houses but the only way you can charge an EV is like the local Ice Cream van owner used to do which was extension lead from upstairs window to lamp standard and then through his van skylight to keep his fridges cold.

[tom1977]

The current trend (and has been for well over than a decade) is to provide as little parking provision as possible – and then complain about a car or traffic problem when there's no other choice but to park on the street or start converting gardens. Developers also have to take some of the blame for this, as properties are now built with virtually no outdoor space and built closer together to cram as much as possible into what's a small parcel of land. This current trend cannot continue because it's just making the problem worse.

A lot of new properties also have little internal storage so families are forced to store stuff in the garage which are already quite small for a car.

It is high time development design and planning guidelines were updated to force developers to provide decent quality housing stock, fit for purpose in the current age.

[AndyB]

The problem with guidelines is you don't have to comply with them. As long as you are meeting the letter of the law, and someone is willing to pay...

[Bendo]

Everyone including councils, developers and homeowners has to recognise that virtually all adult occupants of a property are likely to have their own car. Build a five bedroom house and you'll likely need as many parking spaces plus those for visitors.

The problem is if you provide enough parking spaces you then get the plague of people kicking off when someone parks outside their house.

Those people amuse me, I take it they never drive anywhere and park outside other peoples houses.

[haymansafc]

A lot of new properties also have little internal storage so families are forced to store stuff in the garage which are already quite small for a car.

It is high time development design and planning guidelines were updated to force developers to provide decent quality housing stock, fit for purpose in the current age.

Indeed, very true... Our garage could possibly be put back into use as an internal place to store a car. Two thirds of it would need emptying out (which would mean we'd have to buy a large-ish shed) and then it would need an original width door putting on it. At the moment, it's had frontal work done on it to narrow the width for some reason (before our time) and the current door is about 2ft narrower than the original.

If it was put back to it's original use, a current supermini would be fine to fit in there. I doubt something small hatch size would fit without 'precision parking'...and then you'd have to get in and out of the car via the boot! My car? No chance!

If we had the money, I'd personally demolish the garage and rebuild a new one which was the same length but a good 3/4ft wider than the original (to fit a car and enough space for tools). As things stand, we're looking to refurbish what's there as it still has it's original asbestos roof and the a lot of the woodwork needs replacement. It makes for an excellent large tool shed/'man cave' but that's about it!

Modern built garages are even worse. You cannot literally fit any car in them unless it's something along the size of a Smart Car or has the width of a Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

Developers really do need to start considering practicality when it comes to building homes but sadly, profits come above all else (to say the least...) considering how many properties they like to squeeze onto the smallest parcels of land these days. In an ideal situation when it comes to parking provision, the literally need to go back half a century to when future-proofing was considered. A sizeable garage and room, off road, for at least two cars. All they need to do is take the size of the largest model on sale today and scale up the footprint so there's at least enough room to open the doors. Sadly, this means less properties on that tiny parcel of land - great for the people who live there but terrible for business.

Personally speaking, I couldn't live in a property built much later than the early 80's for this reason – unless it's been individually built outside of the usual local and national developers. I'd feel very claustrophobic.

[WHBM]

We are in inner London but are in what, when the house was built, was the London Docklands Development Corporation. They were the planning authority, not the borough, which caused the politicians there to go into continuous rattle-out-of-pram mode, but the LDDC had a range of very worthwhile ideas.

They were starting with derelict land, but had a range of practical standards. All the main volume housebuilders were invited in but told what they could build and what the LDDC standards were. Even the smallest 1-bed property had parking provision, 2-bed has two spaces, 3-bed has a garage, 4-bed has a double garage. And you can get a decent car in the garage. They also knew what they were doing for road layouts and extensive public open space. They also did some substantial main road improvements, and built the DLR.

Since the end of the LDDC the local authority just seems to not have a clue for these issues. New developments are allowed with nothing like these standards - and are generally sold to investors off plan, in some cases even before they are offered to any owner occupiers. LDDC had a clever little scheme to prevent developers doing that. Among other things they have implemented a residents parking scheme, justified, depending on who you speak to, either as "everywhere else in the borough has it so why shouldn't you", or alternatively "it's to stop commuter car parking". We have never had the slightest issue with the latter. Hours are 0800-1800, the warden comes round once a week at 0805, as we are 5 minutes from where they start, so any overnight visitors you may have get done but a commuter parking there 0900-1700 would never see them.

[Tinpusher]

Everyone including councils, developers and homeowners has to recognise that virtually all adult occupants of a property are likely to have their own car. Build a five bedroom house and you'll likely need as many parking spaces plus those for visitors.

The problem is if you provide enough parking spaces you then get the plague of people kicking off when someone parks outside their house.

Those people amuse me, I take it they never drive anywhere and park outside other peoples houses.

We have one near us who, despite having a large drive, will deliberately park her car outside the house in such a fashion that if another car parked in front or behind of her...it'd block a driveway. It's so obvious and so petty. The thrill I get when I finish work early and leave my car there out of spite. Dashcam ready to catch any retaliatory vandalism

[tipsynurse]

It would be good to mandate better roads. I have a friend on a new housing estates and the roads are just horrible. Twisting every ten metres, sharp speed bumps everywhere even though you couldn't go over 15mph if you tried, and cars scattered everywhere including around corners because none of the houses have driveways.

Best of all they have done that thing where the whole estate is connected onto the road network with a simple T junction onto a 40mph arterial road. Same with anotyer estate near me. I just don't get how they are allowed to get away with it, when older estates always have multiple decent junctions to arterial roads.

[trickstat]

The problem is if you provide enough parking spaces you then get the plague of people kicking off when someone parks outside their house.

Those people amuse me, I take it they never drive anywhere and park outside other peoples houses.

We have one near us who, despite having a large drive, will deliberately park her car outside the house in such a fashion that if another car parked in front or behind of her...it'd block a driveway. It's so obvious and so petty. The thrill I get when I finish work early and leave my car there out of spite. Dashcam ready to catch any retaliatory vandalism

One of my colleagues was talking the other day about a neighbour of hers who will knock on people's doors to find out who has parked outside her house. My colleague has pointed out to her that she does not have any kind of exclusive right to park outside her own house.

While I do think that people should exercise consideration for others when parking, residents should also be considerate and reasonable in their behaviour. It does seem that some people would actually walk over 100m up and down a street to find out who has parked outside their house and made them have to park 20m from their front door!

[tipsynurse]

One of my colleagues was talking the other day about a neighbour of hers who will knock on people's doors to find out who has parked outside her house. My colleague has pointed out to her that she does not have any kind of exclusive right to park outside her own house.

While I do think that people should exercise consideration for others when parking, residents should also be considerate and reasonable in their behaviour. It does seem that some people would actually walk over 100m up and down a street to find out who has parked outside their house and made them have to park 20m from their front door!

Unfortunately my neighbour across the road is perhaps an even worse type, he will leave a note on people's cars if he takes exception to them, e.g. a large 4x4 will get a note saying "Please remove this monstrosity from outside my house immediately."

Bear in mind he has a large driveway with space for about six cars and trees meaning he cannot even see the road from his house!

He has grudgingly accepted that we will park outside (we only have space for one car outside) but will come over and ask to "reserve" the space if he has a special guest over!

The weird thing is he is fairly nice about most things, he just has an obsession about four metres of tarmac!

[Truvelo]

Yet I know people who like the opposite. When they are away a car parked outside their house gives the impression there's someone in and lessens the chance of a burglary.