Half a million pounds has been set aside to make physical improvements to tackle inappropriate parking in a post-war estate in Peterborough, ahead of a parking ban pilot.
The Dogsthorpe Estate in Peterborough, designed and built in the late-1940s when car ownership was still relatively rare, is blighted by residents parking on footways and grass verges. ~Peterborough City Council~ advised by the Department for Transport to trial its proposal for a penalty charge notices scheme to combat footway and verge parking before introducing it city-wide, selected the estate for the pilot. Ahead of introducing parking fines, Peterborough council is to install drop kerbs around the estate – costing around£30-per-square-metre – in order to provide residents with access to their own land without damaging the footways.
The council will also create a number of layby parking bays where drop kerbs cannot be installed. If the project proves successful, the long-term hope is to use penalties to tackle the problem across Peterborough, at an estimated cost of £3M. Projects development manager, David Plater, said: ‘Over the years, the city council has received many requests from the public to tackle this problem, which costs a lot of money to repair and makes an area look run-down and uncared for. It also causes inconvenience and potential danger to parents with prams and pushchairs, disabled people in wheelchairs, and other pedestrians, who are forced to walk on the road.’
The project team has experienced a ‘sharp learning curve’, with set-backs including the DfT’s refusal of a city-wide scheme pending a pilot. Once a public exhibition has taken place in June and sites have been identified, it is hoped work will start later this year. Residents will then face a ban on parking on highway verges and footways, or face a £60 fine.
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