125 residents of Tintagel close, King Arthurs way Andover, have collaboratively put together a petition to Test Valley council after a spout of parking fines over the recent months. Parking fines are issued by Hampshire County council traffic wardens.
The residents have suggested that there is inadequate parking in the area with people being fined for parking on a daily basis when insufficient parking is provided, they deem this to be extremely unfair and have provided TVBC an appeal and shared it to all authorities involved, in the hope that “one or some of the authorities would be able to liaise, in order to mitigate or resolve our parking problems.”
The petition, of which has 125 signatures reads;
PETITION – INADEQUATE PARKING -TINTAGEL CLOSE, ANDOVER We, the people of Tintagel Close hereby petition to appeal for adequate parking in our Close.
This appeal is supported by the following points:
1) There is insufficient disabled parking- there is more than one disabled driver in the area.
2) Elsewhere additional parking allocations are made to accommodate for visitors or deliveries which we do not have the benefit of. Some of our residents have more than one vehicle and some work vehicles.
3) NHS and other essential late workers are disproportionately affected as there is no legal parking left after 18h00 and all the legal and illegal parking is taken up for those arriving home very late i.e. after 22h00.
4) A snapshot survey was conducted at about 20h00, to ascertain the extent and severity of the problem and how many more spaces are required to alleviate the problem. The count included all of Tintagel Close and the adjacent part of King Arthur’s Way between Meliot Rise and Stuart Court. It was found that there are approximately 125 legal spaces and that there are already about 50 vehicles illegally parked at 20h00. Returning late workers would exacerbate this number. 125 legal spaces for 174 residences (not accounting for more than one vehicle per household, visitors or delivery drivers or the vehicles parked in garages) is obviously totally inadequate and creates a very unfair situation with regard to parking fines. It should be pointed out that we have never seen any vehicle causing an obstruction to traffic in the manner they park.
5) The alternative of hiring a garage has been placed beyond most resident’s ability to pay, due to the recent price increase. This is especially so in a time when many have less or no income due to Covid 19.
6) It should be noted that although the parking problems have been exacerbated by Covid 19 circumstances, the problems existed prior to this, and will continue to exist post Covid 19.
7) Many of the residents living in this area are in Council housing, due to circumstances which place them in a position of needing reduced housing costs. This vulnerable group is then being targeted for parking fines, not sufficiently provided, thus aggravating deprived circumstances, whilst Council is profiting from the situation. Many who have lost income during Covid 19 are also unable to afford parking fines.
8) A discussion was held with the traffic officer enforcing the rules, to enquire what is enforced. It was noted that the parking regulations apply 24/7 to the yellow lines and the pavement alongside the yellow lines, as well as parking next to a pedestrian walkway and any ground or pavement in the area as it is council land. Therefore, every resident who is unable to obtain a legal parking space will be fined.
9) In some cases parking fees have been waived during lockdown but this has not been applied to parking fines which, for us, have continued relentlessly, on a daily basis, despite the fact that more people are home than ever before.
10) During the period of the lockdown the yellow no parking lines were extended, resulting in less parking spaces being available, where 3 cars could previously park only 2 can now do so.
11) There is adequate parking in other Council areas but not in our area. This is especially so with regard to property numbers 1 – 21A as there is no road between these properties (only a walkway and common grassed area) and therefore no parking at all, as is the case for other properties in Tintagel Close. This is exacerbated by being adjacent to the school, with the additional pressures of school stopping and parking.
12) It is noted that Aster Housing has provided new additional parking spaces for their Aster homes in Wiltshire, where parking was a problem. Similarly, other areas in Andover have been provided with additional parking.
The residents who signed the petition have asked that the parking issue in the area is dealt with with some urgency due to fears that with the recent plans to demolish some bungalows and garages to build flats will “severely exacerbate” the problem with fewer spaces and more residents without parking.
A local resident, who wishes to remain anonymous told Andover Radio 95.5fm “The enforcement team have been very strict recently, even if you are only just on the yellow lines” they went on to say ” there has been a recent incident, whereby someone had received a fine even though they were parked in a legal space, it was then cancelled on appeal due to their error”
“My neighbour is a nurse at Southampton Hospital. She often gets home after lengthy shifts and is unable to park. Seeing one of our NHS heroes get 2/3 tickets a week after they have finished a shift saving lives is heart-breaking”
