That councils should help people install driveways

[Soontobeorange]

I'm probably being unreasonable.

I've lived at current address for 9 years and the last year parking has been not just difficult, but nigh on impossible. I often have to park 1 or 2 streets away. I use a lot of equipment for work so my choices are park on pavement to unload (so wheelchairs and prams have to cross over or go in the road) or make several trips lugging heavy electrical equipment. My front garden is up a slope so I have to carry stuff up the stairs which makes it slower and limits how much I can carry.

I guess the obvious solution is for more people to install driveways but they are so expensive and even if you can afford it, the council may not approve a dropped kerb. Aibu that local councils should help people to install driveways? Either financially or by making it easier to get permission.

Also I'm talking about a drive big enough for 1 car not paving over the entire front garden as that would be horrible for wildlife.

Who might not be arsed about a parking space because they don't have a car.

Leave your stuff in the car?

You mean homeowners that park on a drive would benefit people.

Id guess if you look at the streets with driveways many choose to park on the road still so wouldn't make a difference giving them a drive regardless of cost.

Loads of councils can barely cover the most basic expenses as it is, they certainly shouldn't be funding this.

It’s helpful to others as well!

my choices are park on pavement to unload (so wheelchairs and prams have to cross over or go in the road) or ...
Nope. If it means blocking wheelchairs and prams, than parking on a pavememt to unload isn't a choice you really have. Just don't do it.

In majority of the places newly added individual driveways are reducing the parking spaces available for others. You said that your specific situation is different. I suppose part of getting the permission is that the local authority has to assess the situation.

I'd generally agree that if you wish to park on your land - without limiting other people's options, it should be allowed.

right, not outside your house then… so you want the council to pay to remove a space on your ROAD which currently anyone can park in, in order to install a dropped curb which will remove that space, so that YOU can park in your front garden?

If you install a driveway thats one less parking space on the road. And that driveway is often not used where a road place is available for everyone. It makes parking more of a problem , not less

How does a dropped kerb help others when a road already has enough dropped kerbs for push chairs and wheelchairs?

Erm, no. Do you need a diagram?

Agree!

Yes please. Always useful for parking threads!

Driveway installation doesn't help anyone except the driveway owner. It permanently prevents people from parking on that part of the road side.

So council tax payers who paid more for houses with drives fund others who didn’t- no thanks.

What I would like to see though is a total
ban on camper vans being parked and left on a public road. If you buy a camper van you either need to park it in your own driveway or pay for storage.

It would decrease the amount of parking overall though, unless you want to be moaning that someone has blocked your drive.

This is not my street but similar. My street is sloped so my side (right) has gardens that slope up towards the building. The left hand side had gardens that slope down towards the buildings. Each side has flats (half houses) with shared front gardens.

My proposal was that the right hand side gardens be turned into driveways to enable the left hand siders to park on the street. There are no parking spaces outside the right hand side, so making driveways would not remove parking spaces. The left hand siders could also have driveways I guess, but as the land slopes down from the street you would have to build a sort of platform to drive the car onto. It would also remove current street spaces as pp have said.

After posting this thread I realise my street may be unique!

I could do with a wraparound kitchen extension and a new bathroom. Oh, and a garden office. Do you think the council would fund that for me? 🤔

If not, I’m not sure why I’d be paying for your front garden to be re-landscaped.

The opposite is current policy as an anti flooding measure ...saving as much soak away as possible

Only if I could park in your garden office.

I live an Edwardian terrace. Where are they going to put the driveway?

They did bring in residents parking permits, and you can have one resident's permit and one visitor's permit, wh8ch was to help with parking- it runs between 8am to 5pm on weekdays, which was when there never was a problem with patking, because a lot of the cars have been driven to workplaces. It's overnight it is more of a challenge- but i now feel I have more right to park in adjoining streets in the same permit area than I did before.

I don't think the council should do more. People with mobility issues can apply for a disabled parking bay, as my next door neighbours have - though anyone with a blue badge and resident's or visitor's permit could park there. Others, if they have lots to carry on a regular basis, could get a folding trolley or something.

(Don't know why thst posted twice.)

So you propose to forcefully make one side of the street lose their gardens for your benefit?

Is that what you are saying?

What if they want a garden not a car parking space?

Yes. At gunpoint.

Of course they shouldn't be forced but perhaps if the laws around dropped kerbs were relaxed then it might be easier for people to make that choice.

Also, putting in driveways is particular difficult here as the gardens are sloped. About 3-4 metres from pavement level. So you have to carve out a space and secure the earth before laying the drive. A few people do have them. They are the aristocrats of the estate.

I wanted a driveway and ao I bought a house that has one. Maybe you should do the same?

No I don’t think that is the council’s responsibility.

I do, however, think that it should be made law that if you have a drive, you should park your bloody car on it and not clog up the road for everybody else.

In my parents’ road every house has a drive. I think my DF is the only one who uses it. Everyone else parks on the road/pavement/grass verge. Nose to tail, the full length of the street, both sides. It’s infuriating when there’s nowhere for visitors to park, but every resident’s drive is empty!