A WOKINGHAM councillor is looking to create a new, designated car park to resolve vehicle overcrowding on a housing estate.
Shinfield North councillor Parry Batth is hoping to open up a disused road south of Shinfield Park to prevent motorists parking illegally.
The number of cars on the estate has quadrupled in recent years, according to Cllr Batth, while the quantity of parking spaces has stayed the same.
With residents unwilling to give up green spaces, the Whitley Wood Road site appears the most feasible option for a designated residents parking area.
Cllr Batth said: “There has been a fair amount of illegal parking. We’ve tried to resolve that by opening up the old Whitley Wood Road as a safe place for residents to park.”
There are currently enough parking spaces for each of the privately-owned properties to house one car. However, according to the former Mayor of Wokingham Borough Council, a lot of the homes on the estate are owned by housing associations.
When the estate was first built, each household was designated one-and-a-half parking spaces, which is now no longer the case due to the number of people who live there.
Overcrowding has seen cars being left parked illegally in front of driveways and on roundabouts. Cllr Batth said this was not only a concern for motorists travelling through the estate, but also for pedestrians.
Cars parked on curbs have provided significant hindrance to those using pushchairs, wheelchairs and power chairs, with some residents voicing concerns about walking on the roads.
Mr Batth explained a large number of people who live in Shinfield Park are contractors, who provide specialist services to companies in Reading and Wokingham, particularly within the IT and technology sector.
The estate is ideally located near the M4’s junction 11 for travel into London and central Reading, and is only a short walk from Thames Valley Science Park. The site houses Shinfield Studios and British Museum, Natural History Museum and Rutherford Cancer Centre facilities.
A new parking area would be for Shinfield Park residents exclusively, although Cllr Batth suspects others may try to take advantage, potentially creating their own park and ride system.
He said: “The only trouble is that it’ll be open to anybody who can park there, get on a bus and go into town. That is a problem we have to somehow find a solution for, so it’s for the residents and not anybody else.”
The highways team are considering ways to implement this, with one viable resolution being the usage of a permit system.
