Residents Permit Parking

By creativemojo | Thursday, July 02, 2009, 20:42

I am just writing with my long running, finally unbottled frustration at the parking situation in St. Andrew Street, Tiverton. I have three points so please bear with me but I feel I need to vent these issues in public now as things are getting a little out of hand.

Is it not about time that the council looked into residents permit parking for our street that to be fair is probably one of a kind in Tiverton. Our street is unique in that it, many years ago, was cut in two when the old railway line was converted into the western way. This is not unusual you may say, but the thing that makes life so awkward is that there is no alternative for parking like there might be with other roads in Tiverton. Because of our geographic position the nearest parallel road to find parking is across the river in West Exe, over 500 yards away. As we are a family with 2 children under the age of two we need to be able to park either outside our house or at least under 100 yards from the house to allow for unloading of children and shopping etc. This is becoming impossible during the day now too because of something that I know makes most of the residents in our street blood boil and that is issue Two.

Because the street is so close to the top of the town centre, everyone who commutes into work uses it a a free alternative to the car parks during the day. This causes the issue of there only being space for 10 of the streets lawful spaces to be almost impossible for the 15 households to find any parking. This problem is particularly hard for the people who work from home on the street and find themselves constantly having to drive around half of Tiverton to find a space if they dare to leave their home.

The third issue is a more personal one. If you arrive home late in the evening to our street, for example a Friday night, you will never find a space to park in our road. The only alternative is the double yellow lines as as I mentioned before the alternatives, particularly at night, are out of the question. My wife helps out with an elderly person every morning and had to leave the house at 7am every morning. This morning however we were disgusted to find a ticket on our car issued at 6.30am! What are we supposed to do, find somewhere to park a mile from our home late at night with two young children just so we don't get a ticket at half past six in the morning, This is just madness.

Get it together Mid Devon Council and at least try to help your residents. I know there are some who are beginning to find this lovely little street they live in start to become impossible to contend with.

Re-post Write a story

Ads by Google

Comments

Was there any further information on this subject a year on?

By creativemojo at 11:28 on 25/08/10
Report
Hi Dave, did you get any further contacting Meg Booth?

By creativemojo at 18:48 on 10/08/09
Report
Absolutely... I've been on both sides of the fence; parking in residential area without permits to avoid paying parking fees and suffered from not having a space at home. It quickly became very clear that having residents permits is the only solution.

By INLUMINO at 18:49 on 17/07/09
Report
Thanks for your support Dave - That sounds like the kind of buck passing reply I would expect from the people at DCC. Will be interesting to hear what Meg has to say particularly regarding the single yellow lines at the end of the road. The issue I have with that is that it is claimed they are there for access for emergency vehicles. What happens then when it is after 6pm, those spaces are legally full with vehicles and a fire engine needs to get down to the end of the road. Surely if it was such an issue regarding the emergency access they would have made it all double yellows! Not sure this is all making sense to me. Looking forward to what Meg Booth has to say.

By creativemojo at 16:17 on 10/07/09
Report
Got in touch with Mid Devon County council re parking and this is their response:

"With ref to your email there are a number points that I feel I need to make, firstly I am aware of the parking problems that residence of St Andrews street are experiencing.

We at Mid Devon District Council are enforcement agent’s on behalf of Devon County Council for civil parking our officers have to enforce the restrictions that are in place for Mid Devon District as a whole, parking on double yellow lines is not allowed at any time the enforcement is in place 7 days a week 52 weeks of the year throughout the UK. Parking on single yellow lines is enforceable as per the time plates for the restricted area, once again this is nationwide. Only DCC can make decisions regarding residential parking you would need to make an application to them, the DCC highways department would be your point of contact. The main reason that no through road has parking restrictions is for clear access for emergency vehicles.

We allow free parking in our car parks from 18.00 to 0800 unfortunately there is nothing else that I can do to help with parking in Tiverton.

Your point of contact in DCC highways would be Meg Booth she is the head of department and it is her department that would make any changes.

I am sorry I can not help more with your problem.

Regards Bill Allin"

In other words they know about the situation but are not prepared to do anything about it!!

Will be emailing this Ms Meg Booth once i can obtain contact details for her.

By DaveB1971 at 16:05 on 09/07/09
Report