Residents' parking permits - a complete rip off?

[jwl2005 10]

hi, bruce shark.

 

i have just moved into stalker lees road and will have a car frm monday onwards. what is the procudure of parking outside my property and not getting tickets can i get a permit? if so how? can u help please.

[matsalleh 10]

According to previous threads on this subject,paying for a parking permit does not guarantee you a parking space.Check what you get before paying.

[neeeeeeeeeek 10]

My ex girfrield used to live in Brighton, parking permits were £80 and then you were unlikely to get a space any where near her house if at all. I would drive down from Sheffield on a Friday night in about 3 1/2 hours, then spend another hour trying to bloody park! Also When I lived on Margret Street in Sheffield you needed a permit to park on the street but they would only allow 1 permit per house, regardless of how many people lived there or owned cars. Then on a Match day you would have a million cars parked all over the road, grass, verge, junction, double parking, and the wardens did NOTHING about it!

[Haydn1971 10]

A few points really Lucy...

 

Local Authorities up and down the country put these things in at the request of local residents, typically to solve a problem with people who park in residential streets visiting nearby offices, shops, hospitals etc, upsetting the local residents who don't dare to leave their home for fear of not being able to park when they return...

 

So, firstly the parking scheme is for your benefit...

 

Next, these schemes are typicaly advertised, usually with a letter to all residents, adverts on streets and in the press. Residents have an opportunity to object if they so please, even mount a group objection... If you don't like the scheme you have, get a petition up with your neighbors and ask for it to be removed...

 

The public highway outside your home, even if it's shown up in your deeds, isn't yours to use as you see fit, it's for vehicles to drive up and done and it's the highway authority to manage the road outside your home in the most appropriate way. This sometimes means double yellows, sometimes limited waiting, mostly, the road outside your home is unaffected by restrictions... But all restrictions are signed, so that anyone parking on a street, is "informed" about the restriction.

 

I'd rather my council didn't inform me of everything that went off in my street on a regular basis, I can see where I can or cannot park by looking at the signs by the roadside, it's a little bit of a give away when it says something like "permit holders only" that you might think, "oh, where do I get one of them from".

 

Direct action is always the best way, posting a rant on here or ranting to your mates in the pub won't get anything done, but writing a letter into the highway authority might put the wheels in motion... their reply might not be what you want to hear, but at least you will know why something is so !

 

On your last point though... I'd agree, enforcement, should be whiter than white and the parking attendants should find a suitable place to park that doesn't block the footway etc...

[Tony 10]

Be interested to hear what they have to say about it. I once queried a similar situation and was told that when it comes to parking restrictions, traffic wardens have 'operational immunity', - but I doubt this covers parking on the pavement, which isn't just a local restriction.

I wouldn't imagine that the Road Traffic Act sees it like that Greybeard.

 

Perhaps a letter to the Chief Constable might be in order too Lucy_Smith, especially with those photos?!

 

 

I support the residents parking schemes, but there is no reason why the council operatives should think that they have any kind of immunity. It destroys confidence in the scheme at the most basic level.

[Eddie_shef 10]

I used to live in Broomhall where they introduced a residents permit scheme.

It was done to try and reduce the number of non-residents parking there and then just walking to work/the city centre.

However, the schemes get quickly abused. within the first month there were cars parking there with resident permits whose owners didn't live in the area.

As a resident you can apply for a parking permit (and pay for it)- you can also apply for one and sell it on to a friendly parker. Obviously you need to know the person prior to this and it needs to be a relatively long term arrangement (I think the minimum permit time is 1-3 months).

So the system itself doesn't actually work.

What I always thought about was rather than resident's being entitled to a set number of permits per household (as this leaves room for abuse) resident's can apply for the permits through the City Council showing them that the car is registered to a property within the permit zone. The resident should not have to pay for anything and the fact that a permit would only be issued to car residing in the area would resolve all abuse problems (I think)

The fact that the Council chose to charge residents for parking permits always ****ed me off because it then changed the objective of providing parking for residents to providing parking according to supply and demand i.e. by introducing a fee you are 'pricing' certain car owners out of the area regardless if they are residents or visitors.

I myself refused to pay for a permit and instead found two spaces a bit further down the road where the permit restricitons aren't in force. My expereience has been that there are always small areas that don't require a permit... something that might be worth looking out for.

[Planner1 428]

I am the Council Officer responsible for the implementation of new Residents Parking Schemes in the city

 

The Stalker Lees Road Residents Parking Scheme is one of the older ones run by the City Council. It only allows for one residents permit per household, which is free. There is no facility for visitor parking. Permits can be obtained from The Council's Parking Services Section tel: 2736158.

 

There are plans to replace the current residents parking scheme as it falls within the area of the proposed Sharrow Vale Residents Parking Scheme. If the new scheme is adopted (which will be decided by Councillors), there will be a charge of £35 for the first residents parking permit, but it is probable that up to two permits per household (depending on demand) could be available and visitors permits will also be available at a reasonable cost (20p each).

 

The fee which is charged for parking permits is to help cover the cost of administering, maintaining and enforcing the schemes. The implementation of the scheme is paid for by capital grants from the Government.

 

The Council's Parking Attendants do actually have an "operational immunity" to park their vehicles on waiting restrictions like double yellow lines if they are required to as part of their duties. This facility is included in the legal order which is required for any waiting restriction. If there is any complaint about the actions or conduct of the parking attendant in this case, or any other, a complaint should be made to:

Parking Services

PO Box 3830

Sheffield

S1 2AQ

[Tomataheeed 10]

I am the Council Officer responsible for the implementation of new Residents Parking Schemes in the city

 

The Stalker Lees Road Residents Parking Scheme is one of the older ones run by the City Council. It only allows for one residents permit per household, which is free. There is no facility for visitor parking. Permits can be obtained from The Council's Parking Services Section tel: 2736158.

 

There are plans to replace the current residents parking scheme as it falls within the area of the proposed Sharrow Vale Residents Parking Scheme. If the new scheme is adopted (which will be decided by Councillors), there will be a charge of £35 for the first residents parking permit, but it is probable that up to two permits per household (depending on demand) could be available and visitors permits will also be available at a reasonable cost (20p each).

 

The fee which is charged for parking permits is to help cover the cost of administering, maintaining and enforcing the schemes. The implementation of the scheme is paid for by capital grants from the Government.

 

The Council's Parking Attendants do actually have an "operational immunity" to park their vehicles on waiting restrictions like double yellow lines if they are required to as part of their duties. This facility is included in the legal order which is required for any waiting restriction. If there is any complaint about the actions or conduct of the parking attendant in this case, or any other, a complaint should be made to:

Parking Services

PO Box 3830

Sheffield

S1 2AQ

 

Planner1, can I ask whats happening with the planned new scheme for Sharrow. A lot of us that work in the area are concerned. Many have no viable public transport option what with shift patterns and where they live. Is there actually any possibility of it being cancelled? We get the impression its a done deal, and the consultation is a formality.

[Planner1 428]

As with all Council schemes, it is Councillors who will decide whether the planned Sharrow Vale Residents Parking Scheme does go ahead. In this case, it will be the City Centre, South and East Area Planning and Highways Board which will decide. You can get details of which Councillors sit on this Board from the Sheffield Council website. Officers will present a report which will include details of all the objections and messages of support we have received, which will include the views which are expressed on this Forum. The report will be published on the Council's website The report will include recommendations made by the officers, but the Councillors on the Board can accept, reject or amend these as they see fit. Therefore, no, it is not a done deal. When the date of the Board meeting has been set (hasn't been decided yet), I will ensure that details are posted on this Forum. The meetings are held in the Town Hall, usually at 2pm.

 

The "Official" period for objections finished at the end of June. However, we will not be reporting to the Area Board until September at the earliest, so any communications we receive up to then can be included in our report and brought to the attention of the Board. The Board meeting at which the report will be discussed is a public meeting and all are welcome to attend. At Area Board meetings, members of the public are allowed to speak, at the discretion of the chair of the meeting.

 

Hope this helps.

[britstu 10]

 

There are plans to replace the current residents parking scheme as it falls within the area of the proposed Sharrow Vale Residents Parking Scheme. If the new scheme is adopted (which will be decided by Councillors), there will be a charge of £35 for the first residents parking permit, but it is probable that up to two permits per household (depending on demand) could be available and visitors permits will also be available at a reasonable cost (20p each).

 

The fee which is charged for parking permits is to help cover the cost of administering, maintaining and enforcing the schemes.

 

Planner1, I understand what the Sharrow Scheme is trying to achieve but why will there be such high charges? I notice that you fail to mention the cost of a second car per household would be £70. If this is not a stealth tax then I don't know what is. I can understand a small charge for admin but £105 per household is outrageous and I suspect that would be the case as most households have 2 cars these days. Plus for the visitor permits we would only be allowed 25 per year.

My own street has never had problems with parking during the day. Even in the evening I've always been able to park in it, and 90% of the time outside my house.

I pay enough tax for driving a car as it is and just feel this is just another tax on motorists.

[Planner1 428]

We don't feel that the charges are particularly high. There are a few Local Authorities which do not charge for residents parking permits, However, nowadays most do charge and it is not uncommon for the permits to be priced on a sliding scale if more than one is allowed. Here are some examples:

 

Bath & NE Somerset - £75 per permit

Swindon - £75 pp

Reading - First permit free, second £50

Glasgow - £135 pp (only one allowed)

Chester - £60 pp

Newcastle - £20 pp, £10 for visitor permit

Nottingham - Free

Derby - £25 pp

Leicester - £24 pp

Exeter - £12 pp

York - £86, second £127, third £250, fourth £500

Lincoln - £25, second & third £50. Business permit £50

Northampton - £25 pp

Oxford - Free

Bournemouth - £50 pp

 

Sharrow in particular is mostly made up of terraced housing, the majority having no off street parking. Charging more for multiple permits is one way of encouraging people to think carefully about their transport choices and consider the appropriateness of households having several vehicles, where there is probably only space on the street for one car per household.

 

Regarding visitors permits, I believe there is some misconception that households will be limited to one book of 25 permits per year. I believe the wording of our letter was somewhat misleading on this point and this will be corrected in future correspondence. Anyone needing more than one book of permits can purchase additional ones from our Parking Services Section. The visitor parking permit allows parking for a full day and costs 20p each (£5 per book of 25).

 

We charge for permits because setting up residents parking schemes is not one of the activities which a council is legally obliged to carry out. We are putting residents parking schemes in because people have asked us to. Whatever we do must therefore come from existing resources or be paid for externally ie by permit charges. There is perhaps more to running a permit parking scheme than you might think.

 

We are currently installing a residents parking scheme in Broomhill and expect there to be around 1000 permits issued. Parking services advise me that dealing with permit applications and issuing the permits will probably take 3 people up to a month to carry out. Sharrow Vale potentially could involve up to 2500 permits. We already have a scheme in place in Broomhall, another coming up in Crookesmoor adn more to follow as we create a Peripheral Parking Zone around the city centre.

 

Permits are renewed on an annual basis and there are always new people coming into an area applying for permits. We will probably need more administration staff at some point and additional office accommodation and equipment for them too.

 

The infrastructure we install to facillitate the Residents Parking zone must also be maintained. The infrastructure for Broomhill (signs, poles, roadmarkings, pay & display machines) is costing £450,000. Sharrow Vale is expected to cost at least that. It will all need to be maintained.

 

Each residents parking zone will need to be enforced. I'm advised that there will be two parking attendants patrolling the Broomhill Zone every day, the same goes for Broomhall. Sharrow Vale is much bigger and will probably need more attendants. As the number of attendants increases, we may need larger accommodation for them.

 

All of these items cost significant amounts of money, particularly when they involve employing more staff, as the overheads must be taken into account.

 

We know that there are very bad parking problems in some parts of the Sharrow Vale area but understand that some parts aren't as badly affected. There will inevitably be displacement from areas where residents parking is implemented, so people who are expressing a desire for their street to opt out of the scheme should bear this in mind. We have received many objections from the area bordered by Junction Road, Ecclesall Road and Psalter Lane, where residents feel that there aren't the same parking problems as in the rest of the proposed zone. We will propose that a ballot be carried out in that area so that people can decide whether they want to be in the scheme or not. A simple majority would win the day. This is one of the options we will be putting to Councillors on the Area Planning and Highways Board who will make the final decisions on all objections (and indeed whether the scheme should go ahead).

 

As far as tax is concerned, your road tax , fuel tax etc doesn't come to the Council, it goes to the Government. The Govermnment is giving us capital grant funding to implement the residents parking schemes through our Local Transport Plan. We feel that it is right that the people who benefit from residents parking schemes, the residents and businesses in the area, should make some contribution to the running costs.

 

Sorry this is a little long winded, but I like to give full answers.

[Granma 10]

"The Govermnment is giving us capital grant funding to implement the residents parking schemes through our Local Transport Plan. "

 

Why can't you use this money to provide parking facilities such as multi-storey carparks? Sites such as the former petrol station on Eccy Road, the present carparks for Norwich Union, for example could be used.

 

Granma.