Build homes with off-street parking

Wadsley, Sheffield

Over the last week, there have been letters or articles about parking issues in The Star on three days.

Most of Sheffield Council’s decisions are not made not with safety or convenience in mind but what money comes in from developers.

So for example, despite Government guidelines saying how much off-street parking must be assigned to new properties, it is rarely followed in the less affluent areas of the city, because developers want to make money and so buildsmall houses with no off-street parking.

Sheffield is built on a number of hills with very steep narrow roads,so when a postage stamp piece of land becomes available on goes a pair of houses with no off-street parking and planners say ‘it’s on a bus route’.

If you live in a less affluent area of the city you cannot possibly hold down a job like a district nurse who needs a car for visiting patients or an electrician or plumber and you certainly cannot have a job that isn’t accessible by public transport. This is discrimination.

Lliving in a less affluent area of the city your safety doesn’t seem to matter, so roads with cars parked nose to tail means service vehicles and large emergency vehicles can’t get to you.

So how do we help? Complain to the Government, your MP or councillor.

We can take out grass verges where it would help, and replace with a permeable surfaces so water can still be absorbed, and reduce the width of some unnecessarily wide footpaths.

We must never build houses without off-street parking for our own safety.

Many countries round the world have come up with iways of incorporating parking spaces into their homes and places of business and entertainment.

Our planners should study these.