A resident’s dispute with the district council over parking his car partly up on a grass verge has highlighted the need to create a legitimate parking area there.
Paul Winsor, of Wistlea Crescent, Colney Heath, is going to a Penalty Notice Tribunal over the issuing of a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) fining him for parking two wheels on the grass verge outside his home.
Even though he is convinced the verge, which has no waiting or parking restrictions, is in Wistlea Crescent, the ticket states that he was parked on the verge in High Street and despite notifying the council many times about the error, they still insist that High Street is where the PCN was issued
Paul faces a £70 fine and is going to the tribunal over the discrepancy between where he says the verge is and where the council does.
But the row is part of a bigger issue over whether or not to allow parking on the verge which is on a bend close to the longabout on the North Orbital Road.
Colney Heath district councillor Chris Brazier said that residents parking on the bend were being fined for parking partly on the verge while at the same time their cars were being damaged by vehicles coming off the longabout.
With parking at a premium there and in the village as a whole, he is lobbying the district council for grasscrete to be put down on the verge so that cars are right off the road and safe from vehicles coming from the longabout, often at speed.
He went on: “I have put in lots of letters and pleas to the council saying can we look at this because we are fining people for avoiding getting their cars damaged. They are invariably damaged when they are parked on the road.
Cllr Brazier said he had been told that the cost of putting down grasscrete would be about £60,000 but the council had agreed to carry out a feasibility study into it.
Paul confirmed he had suffered from damaged wing mirrors and his next door neighbour had incurred £365-worth of damage parking on the bend. Three people had been struck getting in and out of their cars in the past few years, he added.
The situation had been made worse by the county council’s decision to turn off streetlights overnight which meant the bend was unlit.
Paul said that work had been carried out at the other end of Wistlea Crescent to improve parking but nothing at his end. He added: “No-one wants to look at the situation here. I have spoken to the MP, highways and the council but no-one can be bothered.”
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