Essex boost for car loving home buyers

Nice to have a story close to home that is actually a plus for the beleaguered motorist.

For most of the last decade the UK Government has waged a war on the motorist. Endless speed cameras, which are in reality just tax-raising  machines and have little to do with road safety; never-ending fuel tax rises; congestion charging; spiralling parking charges; road-charging schemes and the only coppers you see have a speed gun so non-speeding untaxed and uninsured drivers never get caught –  pushing up costs for the rest of us.

But one of the most stupid, head-in-the-sand policies was the idea that new houses should encourage people to forsake their cars by making garages too small and off-street parking almost non-existent. That has lead to new housing estates round the country littered with not just visitors cars, but those of residents who don’t have enough space to park their own cars on their drives, or whose garage were too small to get a car in (or if you could get it in you couldn’t get out of the car).

But Harlow council in Essex has finally decided that enough is enough. Harlow has enough problems as a ‘new town’ – designed and built in the ’50s & ’60s when car ownership was much lower – with a  huge number of the properties in the town terraced with no off-street parking at all. Parking for residents is mostly on-street, causing enormous problems not just for residents but for those attempting to drive their way through these car obstacle courses.

So Harlow council has now decreed that all new-build properties must have bigger garages and, if they have more than two bedrooms, enough off-road parking for two cars. Hooray! An outbreak of common sense at last. The Transport Leader of the local Conservative Council said:

This new parking guidance is a radical break from the past failed approach which has seen local communities blighted by parked cars. We are effectively asking people whether we should continue living in neighbourhoods that often have the appearance of disorganised car parks or if instead we should look much more closely at how we accommodate the car to allow a better quality of life for our residents.

Of course, this has raised the ire of the do-gooders. Stephen Joseph, director of the Campaign for Better Transport said:

Essex is undermining a decade of work to help people to become less car-dependent. It will create a new generation of car-dominated estates, causing congestion and pollution. In the guise of offering freedom, people will be locked into car dependency. Homes will be too spread out to make good public transport feasible.

What a plank! And good on Harlow Council for addressing the reality, not the fantasy.