Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Parking row residents admit owing thousands
‘My husband has heart problems – I could wake up and he could be dead’
People living on one of the city’s biggest housing estates say they owe thousands of pounds in unpaid fines due to a lack of residents’ parking.
Families in Stonebridge Road, at Kingsbrook Park, are not entitled to park outside their homes so are instead using visitor permits, which are limited to 60 per household per year.
But once these have run out, they are continuing to leave their cars in the road, despite receiving numerous £100 fines from Parking and Property Management Ltd.
Kate Rose Rainbird lives in Stonebridge Road with her partner Ben Jarrett and three children, who are all under four.
The 23-year-old, who is eight months pregnant, says they owe thousands of pounds to the parking firm.
The couple are urging Fell Reynolds estate agent – which manages the land on behalf of Berkeley Homes – to put a residents’ parking scheme in place. Miss Rainbird said: “We can only buy 60 visitor permits per year and this gives you 60 individual days – you’re not allowed to buy any more for the year. So what about the other 305 days of the year?
“All we want is some kind of parking scheme for those of us who live here.
“I have three children and I am high risk of having my child prematurely so it’s hard if I have to park far away. I just park in the road.”
She says they have received almost 40 parking tickets in the past year and bailiffs recently turned up in the early hours.
Debbie Stanley, who also lives in Stonebridge Road, called the situation ridiculous. She said: “There is no parking for housing association residents – all we can do is use the 60 visitor permits.
“We can park there between 9am and 6pm, but that’s when I’m at work. I’m willing to pay for a permit for the whole year or buy more visitor permits, but I’m not allowed.”
Beverley Henson lives there with her husband.
She said: “It is a constant worry for us. My husband has heart problems – I could wake up and he could be dead. We need to park nearby.
“A neighbour who has a parking space lets me use his but this isn’t always possible.”
The neighbours say the parking firm usually turns up in the middle of the night to put tickets on cars.
Joe Starkey, property manager at Fell Reynolds, says some residents under housing association Town and Country Housing do not have spaces allocated to their prop- erties in their tenancy agreements. He said: “It clearly stipulates not to park on the estate roads. What is happening is they are using their visitor parking permits, but they only have 60, so after that if they park there, they are contravening their own leases and estate regulations.”
He says Berkeley Homes is in the process of handing over Stonebridge Road and the nearby Westwood Drive to Kent County Council to deal with highways.
“It will be down to them to make a decision,” he said.
He added that Fell Reynolds authorised Parking and Property Management Ltd to manage the parking.
Alexine Storey, spokesman for Town and Country, said: “Unfortunately there is just not enough parking on site to enable everyone to have an allocated space.
“This has always been the case and residents are advised of this when they are offered a tenancy.”
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