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West Berkshire Council denies small parking bays are to draw in more funds





Retired architect Stan Green prompted the council’s reaction after discovering that a high percentage of Newbury town’s parking bays were either not as long, or as wide, as they should be.
In one car park, he found that the space was a whole metre short of the 2.4m by 4.8m quoted by the Government’s Department of Environment as the “recommended minimum dim-ension for a car space”, and which has existed since 1994.
A West Berkshire Council transport chief accepted the findings, and promised that in future, every new bay would be built to 2.4m by 4.8m.
Mr Green who measured the town’s parking bays, discovered that all 4x4 models, and many saloon cars, could not fit into the space provided.
He said: “It would seem that a large majority of West Berkshire Council’s parking bays, which I estimate could be as high as 90 per cent, are below the Government’s recommended dimensions in Newbury. I found one that was even too small for a Mini.
“During my tour of Newbury’s car parks, I discovered that up to 30 per cent of vehicles were not totally in their bay so, technically, were breaching regulations, and making their owners liable for a fine.
“Bays were a whole metre short in one car park, which is a great concern.”
The head of West Berkshire’s Highways and Transport Department, Mark Edwards, and the county’s traffic manager, Mark Cole, both accepted that the bays did not meet the Government’s recommended dimensions.
However, they rejected Mr Green’s suggestion of putting up signs to warn motorists that they risked breaking regulations, insisting that it should be left to the county’s 14 civil enforcement officers (traffic wardens) to decide whether to issue fixed penalty notices or not.
In an exchange of emails – which have been shown to the

– Mr Edwards said: “I can confirm that in the past financial year 142 penalty charge notices were issued in off-street car parks [in Newbury] for the contravention of ‘parked beyond bay markings’.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any further breakdown of the statistic, and I won’t be issuing any instructions to my CEOs.
“They are quite capable of using their discretion when considering parking contraventions, and will issue PCNs in accordance with the regulations, using their common sense.”
Mark Cole told the

: “I can categorically state that our bays have not been deliberately built smaller in order to collect fines. Probably not enough attention was paid to building them to the standard size.
“However, it does mean that we can provide more car parking for more people coming to the town.
“If we built new bays tomorrow they would be 2.4m by 4.8m, as that is the standard we would expect to provide, but we won’t be doing anything to the ones that we have in place now.
“Regulations state that it is an offence not to park entirely within a bay.
“Even a wheel on a white line adjoining the next bay, will leave an owner liable to a fine, which would depend on the CEO’s discretion.
“Some might issue a fine, others might not.”
Mr Green said: “It would be an absolute scandal if fines have been issued to motorists, whose vehicles have been found outside a bay, when the bay was not the right size.
“I don’t think West Berkshire Council’s transport and parking people have deliberately made the bays smaller than they should be to mug motorists.
“In truth, it looks like incompetence, and a failure in its duty to provide a proper infrastructure.
“It required only some simple observation, a tape-measure, white paint, a brush, and a desire to do the job properly.
“It appears that CEOs have failed to realise that a vast number of bays were the wrong size.”



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