Ranty Friday……..New Homes, why won’t they listen?

This is a post that I was not going to write but it has really, really got my back up.

I live in a close where we were notified a couple of months ago that they were planning to build 8 new 3 bed council houses on a very small piece of land which used to house some garages plus has green space for the children to play.

The garages were demolished a couple of years back due to vandalism and it was requested that they put in proper parking bays for the existing residents of the adjacent Close, but this never happened although residents do use it for parking.

We have lived in our house for 8 years and have contacted the council about issues with parking almost as soon as we moved in, and made suggestions about where they could help resolve the issues.  Even our local Police Officer and Councillor (The Safer Neighbourhood Team) have got involved but our requests have been ignored.

We have attended meeting after meeting about this new development, explaining the parking issues we already have and they changed the plans to reduce the number of houses from 8 down to 6 but have made no effort to help us with the parking issues.

4 of the new houses will face our Close, but parking has been provided from them behind their house with access from the adjacent Close (I hope that makes sense).

Now, with these houses facing our side we are losing existing parking on the road which is crammed full every night, plus these new residents will potentially have 2 or more cars each. Who in their right mind is going to park behind their house when it has no rear access apart from a poorly lit side alley.

The powers that be at the Council have decided we have adequate parking despite the fact:

  1. We had a fatal fire in our Close 5 years ago this month and the fire engine could not get through the cars
  2. We have missed numerous bin collections as the lorry cannot get down the road
  3. We have provided photographic evidence to prove otherwise
  4. We have been requesting assistance for 8 years
  5. I have complained about people parking on the pavements as we have to take buggies into the road
I am NOT against the new houses…….I understand they’re needed……..BUT we have come up with suggestions for the parking issues which are being IGNORED as they don’t see an issue as they are providing 21 new spaces for the ADJACENT CLOSE but nothing for us.

The Planning committee visited our close yesterday, but at 10.30am parking was not an issue.  We were not allowed to speak to them, although we did speak to the Chief Planning Officer to voice our concerns……..just two hours later, despite 45 objections, objection by our local Councillor and a resident representative it was approved with no changes.

We are appealing and have a meeting with our local Councillor but for now AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!


MummyBarrow

9 thoughts on “Ranty Friday……..New Homes, why won’t they listen?”

  1. Parking is becoming such an issue, its all very well cramming in much needed houses, but surely safety is higher priority. In residential areas like yours you’d think the council would see that overcrowded parking increases the risk of children being hit by vehicles trying to gain access.

    Reply
    • It’s a joke, but for a very small amount of cash they could do something about it! These houses were built in the 60’s when people were lucky to have one car per family – now they tend to have one each and my neighbours have 5 – Him & Her have one each plus the son has one and his bf has a car and a work van!!
      They’re not the only ones either………..and don’t get me started on the cars that have no tax that we’ve reported several times!!

      Reply
  2. I bet if one of the Councillors lived in your neighbourhood they would understand what a nightmare parking is, unfortunately most councils are out of touch with what is happening in their towns and think that people are complaining just for the sake of it. Personally I would go to the papers about it.

    Reply
  3. Dont get me started on planning officers.

    We nearly lost half of our new house the day we moved in due to a planning cock up that had been hidden from us. One day I will blog about it.

    I hate them. They dont listen to neighbours and they dont listen to common sense.

    Check out a relationship between the planning officers and the builders / developers. I am convinced that back handers and old school network come in to play a lot more than we know in these things.

    Reply

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