My road is eveyone's car park!

[Bumble]

We have a doctors at the top of my road, so everyone uses our road as a car park. If we go out on Saturday, we can't park when we come home. All the health visitors, nurses and patience park in our road, and not even park properly. We our a little cul-de-sac with a mini car park area. Is there a way to make the road or car park area for residents only?
Do any of you that live by Doctors or train stations have this problem? It drives me mad not being able to park in my road!

[BrandonsMum08]

Im not entirely sure how to go about it, but some roads are permit holders only. I would imagine this would be something you would have to suggest and discuss with your local council, and also see if your neighbours agree because obviously, the more people on your side the better.
They may charge each household a fee per permit though, because it will cost to mark parking bays and put the signs up, although probably not half as much as they would charge you all. My partner is under the impression that you have to pay per permit per year as well so your best bet is to find out exactly how much the permits are first. The road his mum lives down looked into this because of being near the high street, as well as near the station and a big office building, but the cost of the permits wernt worth it so they didnt go ahead. However it is a London Borough council so may be different with an Essex council.

[Jenn]

Hi ya

How are you getting on with this?

I was searching directgov for info about dropped kerbs and came across this. From what it says - it definately sounds like your road would be eligible for becoming a controlled zone.

Parking in a controlled zone
A parking zone is a controlled parking scheme in a street or area where parking is organised in order to help residents park their vehicles.

This means that parking is only permitted in designated parking bays and that the remainder of the kerbside space is subject to yellow line restrictions.

The aim of controlled parking zones is to discourage commuter and long stay parking by people from outside the area.

To find out more information about controlled parking zones in your area, contact your local authority.

[Gina73]

Where I live is a nightmare, there is not enough parking for all the houses and they have made all the local laybys near our flat a one hour stop with no return in 4 hours from 8am til 6pm. I live near Prittlewell Station and alot of people park near our place to walk to the station or walk into Southend. I end up sometimes driving around for at least 10 minutes trying to find somewhere to park. If Southend football team are playing at home it is 10 times worse.

[CllrIanGilbert]

Hi all,

Southend Council is currently setting up residents' parking schemes in a number of areas. As a local councillor I've been involved in getting one for the Colchester Road area of Southend, and I'm asking for more.

They're not easy to set up (there's legal processes to be gone through as well as the administration) there is a small cost involved and they don't please everyone, but if there is a serious problem with non-residents parking in your road, they're worth pushing for.

Best person to go to is your local councillor. If they can't or won't help, you might have to look into getting a petition together or something.

Happy to advise further if I can.

Thanks,
Ian

[Naomi]

I have the same problem - the road where we live has a doctor's surgery at the end (visible from our front window) - and also we are the 3rd street away from the very central crossroads in our village. We did think we were just far enough away to stop people using the road as a shopping carpark - no such luck! Even the people who work in the various businesses and shops park outside our house . We also have a vets in our road a bit further along (luckily they do have their own carpark so not much overflow admittedly) - our only saving grace is that we do have a driveway, unlike some of the turn of the century houses in the street where they just have to take pot luck. Sometimes I have a car either side of the drive and one opposite aswell (ours is a narrow victorian road - the cars regularly have their mirrors knocked off), making getting on and off our drive near impossible. But we chose to live in the centre of the village, so most of the time I grin and bear it.

Conversely! I dropped my little boy at school one day last week by car (which is about 20 minutes walk away so not really suitable to walk a 4 year old to in the snow or rain), and parked on the street outside the school near a house with a driveway, drop kerb and a courtesy line, which I was nowhere near. I returned 5 minutes later to a note under my wiper advising I had caused 'extreme difficulty in leaving the driveway' and that my number had been taken down! (actually the man had not even been out, I have found out since that he does it to all the cars hence the gap outside his house!) I do feel that he was pushing it a bit too far!

Sorry...rant over

[Jenn]

I live on a road with a school too - and it is very difficult to get out of my driveway if there is a car parked both sides. But I would never be that pinickity about it! He sounds like he has too much time on his hands! We bought the house knowing the school was there and we can put up with the traffic twice a day!