To think cars and wheelie bins are big factors in why a lot of areas look terrible?

[Netamount]

Cars are everywhere - households with two or three. Front gardens concreted over, walls demolished to create parking. Streets double parked. New build estates (that should know better) with inadequate parking, so cars are everywhere. Narrow streets and attractive buildings demolished for relief roads and widening.

Most UK houses weren’t built with four massive bins in mind. Many don’t have easy access to the street from the back, so they have to be kept at the front, and look awful.

I’ve no solutions really (I have a car and four bins too), just wondering what other people thought?

I think we are more rural - we have a shop a chippy, a v tiny hairdresser and a pub but no doctors, dentist etc there is a primary school but no secondary. The next village is a 3 mile walk (less over the fields) but a 6 mile round trip is quite a trek and that village doesn't have much more. There is no bus at all on a Sunday, and infrequent and stop quite early in the week. taxis are v expensive as no competition.

Would you like to go back to horses passing everywhere with steaming piles of horse manure on every street corner?

Old buildings had boot scrapers by the front door for a reason.

There are some streets near me (inner London) where bins have to be kept on the pavement (multiple occupancy or no front garden) such that you can’t even walk 2 abreast on the pavement anymore. That’s quite aside from them being a total eyesore.

(Cars not such an issue here.)

It’s not just walking there though, is it? It’s having to carry everything back afterwards. I mean, our local vet is half a mile away (if that) but I’m not about to wrangle with an angry 4kg cat in a box when I can just pop him in the car.

People are also working long hours and are very time poor. I know every minute of may day is accounted for in terms of work, nursery run, work, pick up, work some more. Sometimes if I need something quickly I will drive the 1.5 instead of walking because I have a 10 minute window to do it and that's it! I would always walk (or run( if I had time though).

I'd like there to be a lot more frequent waste recycling points scattered throughout neighbourhoods, personally.

But then I live in the sort of neighbourhood with cramped streets but very affluent public spirited behaviour and willing to recycle/keep things tidy. (Birmingham, and I didn't see a hint of the bin strikes as everyone kept things tidy).

I used to live on an estate where all the houses had underground parking. It made the area look much more attractive.

Bins - we need the French system of no domestic collections but a communal bin service.

Cars - new builds should have one domestic space and then a car park area no more than 10 mins walk away. No need for all cars to be beside the house.

Indeed, but I’m obviously not suggesting everyone walks or cycles every time. There is a balance to be struck, which we are a long way from achieving.

Bins are the biggest problem.

Why are UK planners so unimaginative when it comes to housing?

Not everyone has a car, but every household has bins. Why don't planners design bin spaces?

It's very common in other countries.

Cars are only an issue because there aren't enough parking spaces for all of them. Again, this is a planning fail. There is a huge estate being built near me, hundreds of houses. Each house has space for just one car, two, if you are prepared to block one of them in. But the estate is being built in the countryside, there's nothing around the site but open fields. Why didn't the planners just use a little more land to make all the parking spaces bigger?

It would look far better and be more practical. You wouldn't have cars parking on the street because it was easier than moving one out of the way half the time, just so you can get the other one off the drive.

They could also build storage areas for bins so they weren't just sitting on the driveway.

Oh absolutely, there are definitely lazy people out there but for most people, cars are convenient and if you have to have one for work or school anyway, it’s much easier to use it for errands and short trips too.

Neither DH or I could run our businesses without a vehicle so when we have to go shopping or want a day trip, it’s just easier to hop in the car than it is to worry about missing the train, or what we’ll do if there’s a cancellation etc.

We live in a two up two down with an enclosed yard. Household waste is collected via a wheelie bin, which goes out for collection every fortnight. In between, it lives in the backyard and is reasonably out of the way. But if you need garden waste collecting, that's a separate service and a separate bin. There are caddies for glass and plastics and you have to provide your own bags for paper and card - all of these go out on recycling weeks. In theory, it should work well. In practice, the paper and card get blown about if there's a storm and wheelie bins are knocked over, possibly by foxes. Humans do their bit too - some don't seem to understand that fly-tipping is obnoxious and can get them into trouble.

We don't have a car, but some people have 2 or more and there is no off-road parking here. 1890s built terraces weren't constructed with motorised traffic in mind, and what parking there is is subject to restrictions. This is unavoidable, but can make life difficult for tradespeople and delivery drivers as well as householders. It's no-one's fault really, it's just a very material example of how the past and present can clash.

There’s a newish development not far from me where many of the roads don’t actually have pavements, it’s all block paved. There are wheelie bins and cars everywhere, it’s a nightmare to walk around and looks awful. The actual ‘main’ road of the estate has double yellow lines on both sides so if people can’t fit all their vehicles on their driveways, they just park completely on the pavement. Not even enough room for a single pedestrian to pass yet alone anyone with a pushchair or in a wheelchair.

Which are also depressing

“I don’t understand why people live a different way to me”

My parents are retired and had two cars. My mum was a carer for her mum and needed to be able to take her everywhere. My dad did volunteering and needed the car for it. When my nephew lived with them, he needed his car for work.

We are a two car family, we work different schedules in different places. My daughter is about to learn to drive, she is disabled and can’t use public transport, has unreliable taxis to take her to school and can’t go anywhere unless we take her. So this time next year we will have 3 cars.

Our town has two train stations and is “well served” by buses if you believe the hype. I could take the train to work, but because of my working hours, the car parks are full at the train station by the time I get there. The station is a 30 minute walk, which would make my commute time 1hr 30 minutes. Cost is £18 per day.

There is no bus that goes from my town to the next biggest city. I’d have to walk 20 minutes to the nearest bus stop, get 3 buses to get there, total time is 1hr 50 minutes. Cost is £20 per day.

My office is a 30 minute drive. Fuel cost is £6 quid. Even if you factor in running costs it is much cheaper for me to drive. If anyone expects me to spend 2 hours a day longer and 3 times as much money to use public transport they are having a laugh.

You do right. It's kinder to him and a lot less stressful for you both if you can get him there and back as quickly as possible. We used to take our cats to the vet in a pet buggy, but it became more difficult when we developed health problems. It's under a mile, but the terrain is up and down and if the weather turns bad enroute it's a horrible experience for us and our poor cat. So we bought a conventional carrier and book a taxi for appointments. There's still a lot of outrage and complaint about the carrier (our ginger tomcat is particularly vociferous) but we are there and back home quickly.

sorry but I’m not walking in the pissing rain

Did I say you should?

YANBU. It is getting worse and I think the council should step in to stop it. It is not just front gardens being decimated it is now the grass verges that are ploughed up and parked on. I cannot imagine driving my car into one of these areas.

People have lost the plot tbh. What makes the British Isles unique is their lovely leafy streets and beautiful front gardens and grass verges!

You are absolutely right OP, cars, vans and bins make everywhere look crowded, run down and utterly depressing, you only have to look at old photos where there were no cars, vans and bins and the difference it makes to how an area looks and feels. New build firms should know better, cars and bins should be designed to be at the back of the house, not out the front but they rarely are.

Want to carry 8 bags of shopping up a hill?

1 parking space per bedroom should be the norm

Better to have bins than the pink and black sacks we have in our area which get ripped open by foxes and bin men and leave rubbish strewn all over the road

I agree.

I live on a street that has no driveways and my neighbours on both sides have 5 cars each household! The parents have one each as to do their adult children. The houses in roads near me have no fronts and they keep their bins and recycling boxes on the pavement. It looks dirty and I’ve often seen rats/mice running through them.

Without the car, I wouldn't be able to apply for 95% of the jobs I have applied so far.
Most jobs listed say, require own transport due to no/very limited PT. Then there are the hours and rest require two buses, walking across the city centre to get the 2nd bus.