Parking outside residents' houses: seeking a residents' parking zone and dealing with abandoned vehicles

I bought a new terraced town house in Bournemouth last year. It has no front garden and was fronted by a single yellow line. I checked before purchasing what the status was on parking and the residents had complained about the implementation of the yellow line which removed their ability to park outside their houses. In response the council revoked the restriction and parking was again allowed. The problem is that this has permitted neighbours, visitors to neighbours and visitors to nearby businesses to constantly park outside. There yellow line has a 4 hours limit and while there is a loose agreement beteen owners - one car outside and any other cars park in a nearby street where there is ample parking - people in other streets in the surrounding area ignore this. Are there any means that the owners of the houses on my block can pursue privately to secure our parking e.g. private parking/clamping scheme? Furthermore a week before Xmas, a car was left outside my next door neighbour's house. The tax expired at the end of December but it was only finally removed last night. Can you advise what we can do if it occurs again.

It sounds like you are on a council adopted road in which case you cannot clamp and the parking cannot be made private. The best way to proceed is probably by forming a residents' action group and placing strong pressure on highways to invoke a residents' parking scheme. You could seek to initiate a meeting by circulating a leaflet calling a public meeting in the first instance. It is unlikely you are the only one with the problem and you might find a groundswell of public support.

Bournemouth currently has one Resident Parking Zone in the Kemp Road, Melville Road, and Stanfield Road area of Winton. Permits there are £50 a year but include two cars and a visitor's permit.

To be effective you probably need to work with others to seek it over a wider area than your immediate terrace. Ideally it should be for the immediate surrounding area of perhaps three to four streets.

Representations on the zone can be made to:

Bournemouth Borough Council
Planning & Transport Business Unit
Traffic Group
Town Hall Annexe
St Stephens Road
Bournemouth
BH2 6EA
Email: highways@bournemouth.gov.uk

Our experience is that council officers are much more likely to move quickly if local elected representatives are involved. You should immediately seek to involve elected representatives - your ward councillors. You may well find they are much more responsive if you enlist the support of the press and the Echo are normally good at this kind of story.

On the abandoned vehicle, local authorities have a duty to remove abandoned vehicles but this has hitherto been done at considerable cost to the council tax payer.

In 2007 new regulations have come into play whereby the costs of removal are paid by the EU under a levy which is paid by motor manufacturers (and ultimately the car purchaser).

See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6222085.stm

Bournemouth council continue to be the lead agency with responsibility for this and you should call or call 01202 451199 or email cleansing&waste@bournemouth.gov.uk should this happen again, and demand its immediate removal.

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