ARTICLE 2: THE PARKING PERMIT

Parking Permits are a measure designed to allow car owning residents the opportunity of parking close to their home by restricting the parking of others.

There are over 153 parking zones within Preston with 16 in the areas around the stadium.

PROS

These permits give car owning residents of the zone the opportunity of parking close to their home. It potentially improves the general environmental aspects of the area. Also according to Preston council it generally reduces the number of vehicles in the area.

PERMIT ZONES

In each scheme, a street or a series of streets are called a parking zone. Within each zone a permit holder car park in the bays marked. Permit holders cannot use their permits in other zones.

Below is a map locating the permit zones in Preston where residents can apply for a parking permit. These zones fulfill the criteria set by the council.



View Larger Map

key: BLUE P= Permit holders can park anywhere on the street
GREEN TIANGLE: Permit holders can only park in ceratin areas along the street.

As you can see on the map apart from the bottom part of St George's there are no permit sites around the stadium and especially around Deepdale stadium.

The zones are particulary situated towards the town centre with fewer and fewer towards the outskirts.

CONS

Although widely used parking permits do have their own disadvantages.

Owning a pass does not guarantee a parking space will be available, nor does it guarantee that a resident will be able to park directly outside their house. This in many cases may lead to disputes amongst neighbours.

Russel Rees Head of Engineering for the council at the Central Area Forum elaborated on the problems.

He said: “Another issue is that zones cannot be enforced late into the evening, and some zones have more permits than there are spaces available.”

Mr Rees also explained that with parking schemes: “the number of available spaces might in fact be reduced as there would be a need to create defined parking bays.”

links:
www.preston.gov.uk/Documents/General/Engineers/report%20for%20street%20lis%20and%20properties%20excluding%20organisations.pdf