By Andy McCue, 10 February 2006 14:35
NEWS
Government ministers have been forced to intervene in a parking row between local residents in Guildford and IBM contractors working for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The problem started 12 months ago after Defra outsourced its IT to IBM in a 10-year deal worth £850m and contractors started parking in nearby residential roads in Merrow, Guildford.
Local residents made repeated complaints to Defra that they were unable to park in their own roads because IBM contractors were parking there.
After the complaints were ignored, Guildford MP Anne Milton took up the local resident's cause in parliament to try to force Defra to take action.
This resulted in Defra minister Jim Knight confirming to MPs last week that official representations have been made to IBM to stop the contractors parking on local roads.
Knight said: "Defra are carrying out daily patrols in the local roads to try to identify vehicles which belong to IBM employees. Drivers or their line managers are then contacted and asked to move their vehicles even though these may be parked legally."
Defra failed to respond to requests for comment.
Comments
There are 21 comments. Join the discussion
1. Simon
So what's a company to do ?
If someone builds a nice new facility with good parking, they are slagged off for promoting car use (and even threatened with heavy taxes - what did happen to the parking tax ?). If they don't provide parking then they are slagged off like in this article.
2. David
"Contractors park perfectly legally in side streets - government in no way to blame"
It's a bit of non-story isn't it???
3. Allan Smith
With Prescotts "Planning" laws this will become more and more an issue. Companies these days are not allowed to provide car parking space and public transport (outside London) is a joke.. Where does he expect people to park?! I expect to see more and more of these stories as new office blocks are inhabited. A new office was opened here recently with only 40 spaces available for over 100 staff.
4. Bryan Scott
Your corrrespondent Alan Smith is incorrect, parking is required on any new development except within the Central London area and there are floor space / car park standards in evey local authority Planning document. The problem is that these are inadequate, and always have been, and developers dont want to pay for space that they are effectively not letting for a return. Exactly the same situation occurs in residential areas when households have several cars and inadequate space within the plot.
I live in a ( modern) terrace of 12 dwellings and there are 24 cars with only 3 having 1 car. Two use their garages for a car. Question it and one is told " I have paid my Road Tax and will park where ever I want ". Unless there is some means of controlling car ownership the problem will only get worse.
5. Mike
"Old" planning law encouraged the provision of parking spaces. 2 Jags has changed all this.
Some journeys are not sensibly or economically covered by public transport. The solution is not to make the car journey worse, but to make the public transport better.
The further you get from major city centres, the higher the proportion of car journeys. We should accept this and encourage the provision of offstreet carparking at reasonable rates. ie. less than £2 per day.
As a side issue, can any reader think of a single decision that 2 Jags has made, that hasn't been totally stupid! - Can I smell a silicon.com competition here. No maybe not - there won't be any entries. Well we could have a prize for Prescott's silliest decision!
6. Brian Chappell
Hang on, where's the rest of the story?
You've driven to work (because there's no viable alternative) and you have to park on local roads because you are a contractor and so aren't eligable for a parking space (because the govt have restricted how many spaces you can provide and those you can offer have been immediately oversubscribed by your permanent staff). This 'patrol' spots your car and tells you to move it... where?
I know what my answer would be, either provide parking or you'll be short a few contractors.
7. anonymous
This is a non-story, shock horror people park their car legally on the street.
So what are the consquences if people refuse to move their legally parked cars? If any action is taken, unless these contractors have specifically signed contracts where they agree not to park their cars in certain places, the the contractors have take action against IBM and or DEFRA.
I see several oncoming industrial tribunals here.
8. Nick Cole
It is perfectly legal to park in the street in accordance with local regulations. This is discrimination.
Unfortunately too many companies (and government) seem to expect that their workforce appears as if by magic at the door every day. If a company wants lots of workers then they should make provision for them to be able to get to the workplace.
9. anonymous
In response to Brian Chappel, my answer wouild be "find a car park, pay the charges, get a bus or taxi, and find a way of claiming it back". I thought consultants were good at coming up with novel solutions!
10. John Rutter
Further to comments about planning rules - there are [apparently] some figures that indicate how many parking spaces would be required for a number of staff in any office premises.
At a rough guess, I would suspect that 80% of staff may want a parking space.
Whatever the calculation is, the local planning rules aim to apply some social engineering that go against the logic of personal transport requirements.
If a builder applies to construct an office block for a specified number of staff, the calculation is used to determine the required number of parking spaces.
Where the planning process is completely absurd is that the planning application will only be approved if it aims to build less than half the required number of parking spaces. Insanity.
The theory being that this will 'force' people onto public transport. Well, perhaps if the transport system were joined-up, run as a service, and not a profit-making enterprise, people might use it through choice. As it stands, there is little alternative that beats the personal freedom and convenience (and even cost) of driving your own car to work.
Guildford have rules of this sort in their local plans, which can lead to this sort of problem. (DEFRA site may pre-date these rules though)
In the real world - not the one inhabited by Prescotts and dubious planning agencies - offices get built with insufficient parking and cars get parked on side streets and the like.
11. anonymous
To be fair to Guildford they do have a number of car parks on the edge of the town centre but it seems they just don't have enough capacity to meet demand. The shop and office workers plus the busy rail station (with very little parking of its own) probably account for much of the available parking spaces each day....
They have a Park & Ride system which seems attractively priced and offers a regular service but from my experience that too is oversubscribed and the parking areas fill up early each day. I imagine anyone using this system beats the rush-hour gridlock in the town centre while the buses get priority lanes....
More capacity in the Park & Ride is planned - or so I was told - just don't hold your breath in the meantime.
Anyone want to invest in my "matter transporter" project ?
12. Radical Meldrew
Whilst I sympathise with the local Guildford residents I would urge them not to be too vocal about their parking problems.
Residents in my area fell into a despicable council revenue-generating trap by doing so. The net result is that the unadopted road outside my house has now been marked up into designated bays, considerably reducing the number of available spaces. [We used to park lengthways to the kerb which was never a problem]
The real coup de grace is that we have to purchase an annual permit to park there! This permit does not guarantee a space however, non-residents can park there if they purchase a scratch card during the day and anywhere at night, so it actually didn't solve a thing. Not only that, there are now 3 separate resident zones so a local permit is only valid in a designated area.
My problem is that I live on the edge of a zone and frequently cannot find an evening parking spot in my allotted area. I end up going back out late at night just to move the car back into my zone which is ruthlessly patrolled by traffic wardens looking for strays every morning. Be warned, you too may end up paying dearly to be in this 'privileged' situation?
13. anonymous
This is shokcing - people pay car tax and are parking unrestricted roads. Where is the problem. This is one rule for the upper class and one rule for the rest of us!
14. anonymous
Of course, the real answer is to either move the Defra site out of town, saving those poor residents, or to make the IBM contractors work at their own locations. There are a LARGE number of empty office locations outside residential areas within 20 miles of Guildford that have suitable transport links and ample parking. Alternatively, move the contractors back to IBM, and let IBM deal with their own parking problems!
15. anonymous
Of course the real story is that this has been a problem at this particular site for donkey's years, pre-dating IBM's involvement at Defra.
Workers at the site (both IBM and Civil Servants), have a waiting period before they are entitled to a space. Until then it's pot luck as to whether they can get on site or not on any given day. Standing instructions ask them to avoid a number of roads where residents have been vocal (and in some cases physical) in their opposition.
But hey, let's not let the facts ruin a story.
16. Eric Fenton
The company in question could encourage the use of bicycles if it reimbursed business mileage in the same way as it does for car usage.
17. anonymous
Comments about car parks and park and rides are not very helpful here. This is an old office, inadequately provisioned with parking, well away from useful and direct public transport routes. A civil servant commented that people should go to a car park, pay the ticket and claim it back. They probably can't - and if it is such a good idea, why don't the civil servants on the site do it as well? It really is about time some reality entered into these kinds of debates - if you want lots of people to co-locate, then provide the facilities for them.
18. Julie
I am a contractor on site at Defra and find the whol thing silly. We all pay road tax so what is the problem? People have the right to park on a public road within the law and to send out 'the parking police' with little regard for the contractors working on-site.
19. A Friend
I pay road tax, I can park where ever I like. If I get asked to move, then I will order a skip for that house.
Infact, Im just having a tow bar fitted, as Im now going to park up with a trailer attached.
If the residants dont like, then I suggest they move.
20. Friend of a Friend
Quite ironic , that the very same local residents, strongly opposed having parking restrictions, now they are complaining about limited parking.
The problem will not be removed by imposing parking restrictions, simply deferred to elsewhere. I will be offering the local residents a small fee to allow me to park on their drives, should be interesting to see how many are willing to take me up on this offer.
21. Local Resident
Restricitng parking in local areas / roads, is only shunting the problem elsewhere.
It seems to be more a problem with 996 Porsches or car's that are a strange colour green.
One way ahead is to allow more working at home, as this puts less stress on the local area.
If I was a local, I would gladly rent my drive out for £50 a week, although it would be at the onwer's risk.