Now if only they could ban long vans in all residential areas or 500% surcharge.
That would stop them here in our street.
Colchester is Restricted to 2 permits per business.The cost is not the same as resident
permit parking,
please contact Parking Services for details.
£400 per permit per year.
I live on a private housing development (not posh - its just that the roads are not adopted [probably deliberately - they knew the 'homezone' type of roads aren't - more on that in a mo]) and we originally had really huge problems with parking, mostly because the development is very near the local station and, originally, the developer/builder didn't mark which were each resident's allocated space(s) and which were visitor spaces, plus (apparently - I'm only getting this third hand) some of the unscrupulous sales staff told prospective buyers they could park anywhere. No parking of any kind on the roads because they aren't wide (homezone) and some are designed to be shared with pedestrians (no paths in some areas).
Needless to say, it was a free for all until the last property was sold and the running of the development passed from developer to residents association (both using a management firm). About 50% of the houses had 2 spaces, the rest and all the flats only one each. The worst offenders were:
- One flat owner had 4 vehicles, including a transit van (no commercial vehicles allowed - its in the lease agreements/TP1s) - some in visitor spots (only about 30 visitor spaces for 130+ properties), some in other people's allocated spaces without permission.
- One house owner near me (now long gone thank God) had, yes, a LORRY, which he often parked on the road opposite his house (2 spaces, but not big enough for any high sided or long vehicles [deliberately done to stop them]) or even occasionally opposite the parking area for other cars (including mine), meaning we couldn't get in/out.
It got so bad that we were close to one or two fights breaking out, the binmen saying they'd refuse (pardon the pun) to collect if things stayed as they were as they were often blocked from getting through the development, and the emergency services said they wouldn't care if they had to shamsh through cars parked on the road to be able to get to addresses. Something had to be done and quickly.
In the end, once we'd taken over the running/policy making, we had all the spaces marked by number or visitor, wrote officially (and still do to remind/tell newer residents who forget the parking rules in the welcome pack from the management firm) to tell everyone the rules as we interpreted them and how they were going to be enforced, with a parking control firm, using residents and visitor permits. This has been difficult, with some people 'pretending' not to be told of the rules, especially about parking extra (especially when a couple get married and live in the flats, each having a car, or kids growing up and getting one) cars or people with vans thinking they can get away with it, as their larger size blocks people in or are wide that its difficult to get in/out of cars.
Needless to say, its far more difficult to keep on top of all this looking after a private development than the council looking after a public one - the council has vastly more powers to take offenders to court (and to kick them out of their council home or rescind their space) and their traffic/parking wardens are far better (which is really saying something) than the useless oiks doing the same job for private firms.
I have zero sympathy for people who don't bother reading the rules (we make them aware/available before purchase of a property - all local estate/letting agents know) - there are still a reasonable amount of homes (including flats) available for purchase/rent where better parking is available, and as some posters have said, its rare for businesses run from home to need really large vans - its more like the business owner has a bad business plan and uses the van for storage (stupid, given how poor van security is at the rear, and how many easily get broken into these days).
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