RESIDENTS ‘SELLING PARKING PASSES TO COMMUTERS’

SOME people living in streets near Coventry Railway Station are selling parking passes to commuters, it has been claimed- turning their residential roads into car parks.

Coventry City Council is now clamping down on commuters using some roads across the city at the expense of frustrated residents who are left struggling to park near their own homes.

The parking permits were introduced to try to stop commuters clogging up streets just outside the ring road and near University of Warwick.

The council is now trying a new scheme in which permit holders will need to prove their car is registered with the DVLA to the same address as the permit.

Neighbours in Michaelmas Road are among those who have taken their complaint to the authority, arguing the problem has been going on for years.

They said passes under the Cheylesmore West Residents’ Parking Scheme are being bought by people parking for the city centre and train station.

The new pilot project to tackle the issue is being rolled out on another problem road near to the University of Warwick, the council’s head of traffic and network management Karen Seager said.

At a council meeting on Monday, Michaelmas Road resident Karen Wilson told councillors and officers: “I know the residents’ parking scheme was introduced to mitigate the detrimental effects of Friargate but it has only exasperated the problem.

“There’s some greedy residents who are selling permits and that’s difficult to stamp out.”

She said the problem was being made worse by homeowners in a nearby street renting out their drives for commuters to park on and then parking on already busy streets.

Ms Seager said the pilot project was launched a few months ago on Stoneleigh Road, with permits soon to be removed for those found abusing the permits scheme.

She said: “The vehicles that are registered to those premises as part of the pilot have had to provide their V5 (logbook) to show that the car is registered to that address.

“So that should address the issue of people selling residents’ permits and then parking and trotting off to the station or town.

“We will be removing those permits within the other road, then we are planning to roll it out – Michaelmas Road and the surrounding roads will be the next one.”

Michaelmas Road residents also signed a 63-name petition – backed by ward councillors Roger Bailey and Richard Brown – asking for the speed limit to be reduced to 20mph, as well as a 30-minute waiting period to drop to 15.

Both pleas were rejected, but a temporary mobile vehicle activated sign will be put on the road to try to slow down drivers.

An Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera will also patrol the road to gather evidence of people who are abusing the parking scheme.