The Parish Council have received many complaints over the last few years about inconsiderate parking. Although residents do not have sole rights to park on the public highway outside their own property, inconsiderate parking can be at best a nuisance and at worst obstructive. Travel on roads in several ‘hotspots’ across the parish has often been made extremely difficult by people who do not park appropriately to the extent that they prevent residents, buses, and council and emergency vehicles gaining access to properties or to designated routes. Residents may remember being asked by the Parish Council whether they were in favour of a resident parking scheme. A majority of those who voted said they were, so the Parish Council set aside significant funds to support the investigation of a scheme. The vote was the first step in the Parish Council’s campaign to convince South Norfolk District Council (SNDC) to change its long-standing opposition to such schemes.
After lobbying from your local District Councillors and by several parishes including Cringleford, SNDC agreed to investigate the possibility of a resident parking scheme. Any study into the feasibility of a scheme requires a financial contribution from the parishes, so it was useful that we had already set aside some funds. A meeting was eventually held between the District Council’s officers and those parish councils that were interested. Two of your parish councillors attended the meeting held on July 11 alongside representatives from Trowse, Diss and Wymondham. Very quickly it became apparent that the proposed scheme was not appropriate for any of our parishes since it could not be applied where most houses, like those in Cringleford, have off-street parking available. The Officers agreed to look at other possibilities once they had approval from South Norfolk Councillors and then come back to us with new proposals.