News

Permits will curb parking woes

By Lewis Rudd
February 03, 2012

Residents can now apply to have parking permits introduced to their road or street following policy changes announced by council bosses.

Problems with parking could become a thing of the past after Wokingham Borough Council agreed to adopt a revamped parking policy, taking greater consideration of the capacity issues faced by residents.

Applications from neighbours to introduce a parking permit scheme on any road across the borough will now be accepted by the authority.

An agreed hours of operation for any schemes will also be decided on a road by road basis, as the local conditions of the highway and its surroundings will be taken into account.

Under the scheme permits will remain at £30. However, the cost of carer permits, which stood at £5 or £10, has been waived.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for Transport at the borough council, said: “Demand for parking on some roads in the Wokingham borough can be more than the amount of kerb space available.

“The aim of the residents’ parking protocol aims to maintain a balance between the demands of residents and keeping traffic moving and minimising unsafe and obstructive parking.

“Therefore, each proposed residential parking scheme will be fully assessed before it is implemented.”

Cllr Baker went on to remind residents that although the authority is happy to implement parking permit schemes, all enforcement issues are the responsibility of Thames Valley Police.

For more details or to apply for a parking permit scheme visit www.wokingham.gov.uk/transport/parking/resident-permits.

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Like Damiano, I also pay for a resident parking permit for my road and find infuriating coming back from work in the evening and finding the same cars every day illegally parked without permits, using up the few spaces that we've got. No enforcement whatsoever. In my road, it's the residents with 3 and even 4 cars (parents plus kid's cars) that create a problem. They know well it's not policed, so they take advantage. The parking permit schema is supposed to control the abuse and give all the residents a fair chance of parking, but unless there is some sort of enforcement, all it does is create bad feelings between those who play the rules and those who choose to ignore them.

Zarelan
03/02/2012 at 20:29

Damiano_Tommassi - I agree withn your comments about delivery lorries but again the only LEGAL enforcement agency is the Police. You should report such things immediately to the Police. If and when they refuse to carry out their duty then I hope yo see you attacking them as much as you attack the Council.

Regarding the parking permit, it is difficult to say too much as you do not reveal where you live. However, I assume when you purchased your property you did the usual searches and investigations of the immediate vacinity. It should have been obvious that parking was an issue and that a parking permit scheme operated in your road. So I would have expected you to look at the terms & conditions of a parking permit and used that as part of your decision making process to buy the property.

However, I do actually understand the point you are making which is why I am a strong supporter of decriminalisation which would allow the Council to enforce rather than rely on the Police to do this (or not!)

Cllr Keith Baker
03/02/2012 at 19:58

Good afternoon Cllr. Baker.

The reason I direct my displeasure toward the council is that the fee that I pay goes to the council; they invoice me, I write them a cheque, they take my money. Whether they then pay the police or anyone else to enforce the parking is not my concern; but I pay my council for this service directly. Much the same, I suppose, as my council tax paying to have my bins removed; the council hire another company to actually remove my waste, but I pay the council and they must surely be held responsible.

I do, though, accept the argument that if there were more streets with parking permits, it becomes more cost-effective to 'police' this with a ticket warden (which of course comes with a cost). But that doesn't discharge the responsibilities that are already in place.

I would also like to add that the streets of Wokingham town centre - which are a nightmare to drive through the majority of the time - are often clogged by trucks and lorries delivering to the pubs and shops. In fact, coming home the other day, there was a van parked outside the Ship Inn, on the corner by the church, stopping one lane of traffic. This caused traffic to back up for a few hundred yards. I'm always disappointed at how little traffic enforcement goes on.

Finally, yes, I can drop out of the scheme at any time; but then where would I park the car that is essential for my daily commute to work? It's not so much a choice to drop out of the scheme as a choice to move home, which doesn't suit me, my finances, or the current housing market. So that too is no real choice.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/02/2012 at 12:34

Domiano_Tommassi - I totally understand your point about parking enforcement. However it is no good blaming the Council as they are not legally allowed to issue parking fines which I believe you know full well.

When a resident group apply for parking permits and they qualify it is perfectly clear that enforcement is carried out by the police. With that it is a risk that the police will not consider enforcement high on their priority list.

Any resident who is part of a parking permit system is not forced to apply for a permit and they can drop out of the scheme at any time. So at any stage that you consider you are not getting "the service" you signed up for then simply do not renew your permit.

Finally, we run the service on a break even basis and the reason why your payment is high is that we do not have many areas with parking permits - often exactly due to the issue of enforcement.

Cllr Keith Baker
03/02/2012 at 11:31

**street lights

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/02/2012 at 10:47

Ivor - I'm not suggesting someone else should pay for me (or anyone else) to park; I'm saying that if you enter into a covenant with a council (or anyone else) that says 'I will pay this fee, you provide this service' and then the council doesn't provide that service, then the council has failed in its responsibilities; and predicting that this would be the case for any other streets that paid for their own parking. It's the equivalent of the street lives in your estate going out and not being fixed; you're still paying for them, but not receiving the service. Saying 'not my problem' doesn't help, and isn't very classy.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/02/2012 at 10:34

ivor biggun, get a life.

right said fred
03/02/2012 at 10:29

I work at Thames Valley Park and WBC changed the double yellow lines a few months ago to a total ban on one side of the road and restricted heavily on the other side for little reason other than it caused a small problem for a few people at peak time in one direction. The changes where despite everyone saying madness and not even looking at the traffic flow is all one way in either direction depending on the time of day and its even at force during the weekend when only people using the river visit. Unsurprisingly the local roads are now jammed full of cars of people trying to park. The remaining parking on site is going to be pay and display and saying its a green park use public transport doesn't cut it when the bus takes longer to get out of Reading (if you lucky enough to get one which isn't full already) then most people take to get to Reading. Sounds like a nice easy way to get more people parking in more side roads while making a few quid in the process.

Anonymous_Coward
03/02/2012 at 10:10

Waste of money, unless you sell yellow paint, parking signs, and of course.... parking permits, and you employ people to manage the admin. Residents should be forced to cover these additional costs AND pay extra to Thames Valley Police. Why burden others with additional costs? You bought a house with limited parking outside?.... That's not my problem.

Ivor Biggun, winnersh
03/02/2012 at 10:09

I live within 500 yards of Shute End, and pay for a resident's parking space; I have never - and that's not an exaggeration, never - seen the parking rules enforced on my street. People park in residents' spaces to nip to town, park on double-yellows, park in office spaces etc. And there are car-parks all over Wokingham! So I would suspect that the introduction of resident permits would 1) inject a very small amount of extra cash into the WBC coffers and b) make not the slightest improvement to parking.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/02/2012 at 09:27

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Permits will curb parking woes

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