Resident Parking Schemes

Our existing resident only parking schemes were introduced by the previous South Glamorgan authority prior to 1996 reorganisation and there have not been any new schemes implemented in the Vale for many years.

There has to be a balance with on-street parking restrictions to allow space for residents and shoppers alike. It is appreciated that residents like to park outside or in close proximity to their home but in fact no person has a legal right to park outside their property as the roads are part of the adopted highway for all traffic. 

Any vehicles can park on the adopted highway so long as they do so legally with the correct Tax, MOT test and Insurance and subject to any restrictions that may be in place and not causing an obstruction or danger to other highway users.

In response to many requests for introducing new 'resident only' parking, there may be opportunity to introduce new schemes in future but this is not possible at the moment until specific funding can be identified for the significant costs for legal implementation and on-going enforcement and administration.

Parking schemes are expensive to implement and due to the Councils ever tightening budgets, the funding for traffic management issues is extremely limited. As such any of our available funding has to be spent as effectively as possible and is currently prioritised for road safety schemes and accident reduction.  Although not ideal, we are sure you can appreciate in the wider scheme of things that road safety concerns far outweigh civil parking issues.

• I have more than one vehicle so can I get a permit for both?

  No - The current procedure allows a resident to have one permit per car per house which is seen as a fair and consistent approach which gives all residents a reasonable chance of finding a parking space.

   

  The Council gets many requests for permits however, if the resident has a personal car and a company car for instance, they would have to choose which car to use the permit on.  I am sure that you can appreciate that if we gave a resident 2 or more permits then parking spaces would be rapidly taken up which other residents could make use of, which would not be an overall fair approach.

• I have a permit for my car but my mum looks after the children whilst I am at work, can she get a visitor permit?

  Unfortunately no, there is no permit currently available to cover this instance. Although your mum may use the space whilst you are at work so effectively there is still only one car at a time using the space, this is very difficult to enforce and could be open to abuse.

   

  If however you don’t have your own permit for a car, you could apply for a Visitor permit instead which could be used for any vehicle visiting the property.

•  My vehicle exceeds the size limit, can I still apply?
  No, this size limit was put in place to remain fair to the majority of residents. This size still allows a few commercial sized vehicles such as Transit sized vans. Anything bigger could potentially take up 2 spaces thus reducing the available space for other residents.
• I have relatives that come down to visit regularly, why can I only apply
  for 3 consecutive temporary permits a year?
  This was seen to be a fair limit so as not to avoid abuse of the system where people could have temporary permits every month, in effect using spaces for ‘bone fide’ residents.
• There are never any free spaces near my house, can I park in the next
  street over?
  Unfortunately no, at this present time the permit is only valid for the street that you live on. If however you live on a corner plot and both adjoining streets have permit parking, you can choose which of the streets you wish to allocate for the permit.
• My partner also has her own car, can we both have permits?

  Yes - As long as each car is registered in different names, one for you and one for your partner then that is fine, subject to providing the required documentary proof of evidence.

   

  You can’t however have both permits in one person’s name.

• I use a company vehicle; can I apply for a permit?
  Yes – as long as you do not have any other permit in your name for your personal car and the company car is your main vehicle. You would still need to provide proof of vehicle use in the way of a company letter stating the vehicle is for your sole use.
• Can we have a new permit scheme in our street?

  No, the council is currently not considering any new schemes at present.

   

  Resident parking schemes are expensive to implement and need to be backed up by a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) which involves a lengthy & costly legal process. These costs will need to be met by some as yet unidentified budget. Currently our limited finances are more effectively spent on casualty reductions and other road safety issues at known collision areas. For these reasons there have not been any new ‘resident only’ parking facilities implemented in the Vale for many years.