‘Bonkers’ parking rules changed
Council to require extra parking spaces on new housing sites
More parking spaces will be required on new housing developments in South Gloucestershire following a major overhaul of ‘bonkers’ planning rules, delighting local campaigners.
Following consultation with the public and developers, the local authority has agreed new ‘residential parking standards’ for new housing developments and the changes include:
- · Ditching maximum parking space limits in favour of tough minimum limits;
- · No longer allowing garages to be the only parking space for a dwelling;
- · Requiring visitor spaces; and
- · Committing to produce new guidance to deal with flat conversions.
Previously, there had been years of criticism over planning rules brought in by John Prescott in 2001 under the previous Labour government, which limited the number of parking spaces in an effort to deter people from buying a car.
But residents still bought cars and have had nowhere to park them, which has led to parking in places that have caused problems for bus and emergency vehicles, neighbour disputes, blocking pavements, and a negative impact on quality of life in an area.
The council’s overhaul of its parking rules came after the present Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles MP, changed national planning rules so that councils could set their own parking space limits that would be right for their areas.
Cllr Colin Hunt (Con, Emersons Green), who Chairs the authority’s Development Control East Committee, has been campaigning to make the parking rules more generous and has welcomed the changes. He said:
“Changing South Gloucestershire’s parking standards is another significant step towards deleting the last hint of Labour’s John Prescott in our planning system.
The old bonkers rules were based on the crazy belief that you can somehow force people to limit the number of cars they own by limiting their access to parking spaces.
But we know from painful experience that residents still bought cars and because they have had nowhere to park them, problems have been caused for bus and emergency vehicles, neighbour disputes have flared, pavements have been blocked, and there’s been a negative impact on quality of life in the local area.
This is clearly an issue that resonates with the public because there was a whopping response to the council’s consultation on changing these rules.
These new rules are welcome because they are about introducing some com