Easier parking for Brighton & Hove City Council housing residents

Tenants and leaseholders living in Brighton & Hove City Council homes will see improved parking closer to their homes under proposals to extend parking enforcement.

Extended citywide enforcement on council housing land and garages will provide a fairer and more consistent scheme and follows complaints from residents unable to park close to their homes.

The proposed changes aim to make it easier for residents holding a licence to park, particularly in areas of high parking demand, and will introduce penalties for those who park in bays and areas they do not pay for.

Extending parking enforcement will also help make sure the council meets health and safety requirements and ensures emergency vehicles have access to sites at all times.

Brighton & Hove City Council housing chair Cllr Bill Randall said:

‘We’re proposing to extend parking enforcement on council housing land so it’s easier for our residents to park nearer to their homes and to deter those that park in bays and areas they do not pay for. The proposal follows complaints from residents who rent bays in areas but are unable to park in these because other unauthorised drivers have parked there.

‘This will give us a fairer city-wide scheme that could also generate much needed income that we can invest back into the city’s housing.’

Barry Smith, a Brighton & Hove City Council resident living in a council block in east Brighton, said:

“I think it’s a terrific idea. It would solve an awful lot of problems with parking for council residents.

“At the moment we drive out and don’t know whether we are going to get back and be able to park near our homes because of visitors taking our spaces. On top of this occasionally there are people who don’t live in the block using our parking spaces.”

Brighton & Hove City Council has a contract with Ethical Parking Management to provide enforcement on 56 of the identified 80 parking sites on housing land. The contract is concessionary as the council does not pay for this service but instead receives 13% the value of parking tickets which goes into the Housing Revenue Account.

The latest proposal extends enforcement to 24 more sites.

The proposal will be considered by councillors at Housing Committee tomorrow (14 January). For more information see the report Citywide parking enforcement on housing land here