Residents consulted on parking permit plans

A formal consultation will be held on proposals to introduce residents' parking permits in part of York.

Some residents living in the Huntington Road area have called for action to be taken on their streets because they find it difficult to park outside their homes.

A City of York Council meeting was told one new mother had moved out of the area because of how bad the problems were.

The consultation on the ResPark scheme will cover part of Huntington Road, as well as Ashville Street, Haleys Terrace, Kitchener Street, Oakville Court, Oakville Street and Yearsley Terrace.

The meeting heard that only 63 out of 267 households took part in a similar consultation which followed two petitions from those living in the area in 2019 and 2020.

Streets typically required majority support based on turnouts of at least half of affected households for residential parking permits to be introduced, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

But campaigners said the high number of student houses and short-term holiday lets had kept turnouts below that level.

Emily Green, a paramedic who lives in the area, said those using streets in the area for parking included students, with some leaving their cars there for months on end.

She said: "I have a constant anxiety about parking, I don't like to go out in my car because I know when I come back someone will be parked in the space."

Lindsey Walter, of Haleys Terrace, said parking problems were becoming so bad that it was making it impossible for some people to live there.

She said: "When one of my neighbours had a baby she tried to carry on but she eventually had to move out because she couldn't find anywhere to park."

One resident, however, said he did not want restrictions introduced.

William Owen, who lives on Oakville Street, said: "I live at the top of the street and I park there because I can't walk very far, I wouldn't support anything that changes that."

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