Drive to cut number of students parking

11:00am Saturday 17th November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Pete Hughes, Reporter. Call me on 01865 425431

Judy Harding-Saunders with Harry Driscoll and Victoria Harding-Saunders at Holton Mill, Waterperry Road, where the number of students’ cars parked is making driving hazardous. Picture: OX55332 Antony Moore Buy this photo » Judy Harding-Saunders with Harry Driscoll and Victoria Harding-Saunders at Holton Mill, Waterperry Road, where the number of students’ cars parked is making driving hazardous. Picture: OX55332 Antony Moore

OXFORD BROOKES has given out 1,000 more bus passes in the hope of stopping students parking on a country road.

A line of parked cars, sometimes up to a mile long, is forcing traffic to drive on the wrong side of Waterperry Road in Holton, near Brookes’ Wheatley campus., which villagers say is putting lives at risk.

The road, which runs next to the campus, has a 60 mph limit.

The extra bus passes represent a 20 per cent increase on the 5,000 already given out to students for free.

The university has also brought in parking wardens to help tackle the problems.

Brookes director of corporate affairs Anne Gwinnett said: “Oxford Brookes encourages students to leave their cars at home.

“The Brookes Bus has routes covering the city and runs four times an hour to and from Wheatley campus during the day.

“In late afternoons and evenings we allow people to park on campus without a permit.”

Students who lives within 500 metres of a Brookes bus route are not eligible for a parking permit.

But not all residents are convinced by the new measures.

Victoria Harding-Saunders, 30, who lives in Waterperry Road, said: “The line has got longer and longer every day this year.

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It is now a good mile long. They university is not doing enough.”

Her mother, Judy Harding-Saunders, 56, said: “It is so scary if you meet a big lorry. You either have to reverse or drive in a ditch.

“When all the students are walking in the road you have to toot them, or one of us will have an accident.”

In October, Brookes carried out public consultation over long-term plans to completely redevelop the Wheatley campus.

Parking rules could be changed as a result – but not for another decade.

Residents have sent petitions through Holton Parish Council to Oxfordshire County Council along with representations to Brookes.

There are 500 student parking spaces at the campus, with permits costing £80 a year.

Holton Parish Council chairman Anthony Yeates said: “We had double yellow lines painted in Wheatley and the students just keep moving, so we have got to continually expand.

“We feel that Brookes should look at ways of encouraging students to be considerate instead of paying £80 up- front.”

County council spokesman Martin Crabtree said that some residents had objected to the idea of double yellow lines, because it would just move the problem to a different location.

Mr Crabtree added: “We would hope that students and the university are able to find a solution.”

Thames Valley Police declined to comment last night.

Comments(26)

Dilligaf2010 says...
11:27am Sat 17 Nov 12

If a student can afford to run a car, they can also afford to pay for a parking permit, simple as that.

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sparro says...
11:36am Sat 17 Nov 12

Quote:-"Her mother, Judy Harding-Saunders, 56, said: “It is so scary if you meet a big lorry. You either have to reverse or drive in a ditch."
However does this woman manage to get out of the ditch? I have never seen it happen, always needs a TOW out. I feel she is exaggerating, to make her comments, look good.
The parking is bad though, maybe yellow lines could be put down, every so often to create gaps in the parking, the passing would be simple.

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jockox3 says...
11:51am Sat 17 Nov 12

The point, Dilligaf2010, is that they are not able to get permits, whatever the cost (and I am sure there are plenty who could afford double or treble the amount), if they live within a certain distance of the usually very good bus service. And the university cannot reduce this restriction without making it more difficult for those without such a bus service to get to work or getting permission to increase the parking spaces available on site. As to whether extending the double yellow lines will ever work, surely there must come a point at which walking a few hundred meters to a bus stop in Oxford becomes more attractive than having to walk, say, a minimum of a mile if the lines stretched that far, on unlit roads with no pavement at the other end. I say extend the lines. There's no other reason for anyone to be parked on the Waterperry Rd other than people going to the Brookes campus, is there?

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faatmaan says...
11:59am Sat 17 Nov 12

the change in the park and ride charges could also be contributory, with greater pressure on the car parks that don't charge yet.

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jockox3 says...
12:01pm Sat 17 Nov 12

I doubt it. This has been a perennial problem. It gets worse each year as people learn they can get away with it. And in general, they're not people who would use the park and ride to get to Wheatley Campus (not least because you have to cross the dual carriageway to get to the Wheatley bus stop) as they are mostly coming out of Oxford.

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jockox3 says...
12:04pm Sat 17 Nov 12

If they lived outside of Oxford (e.g. part time local students or staff travelling in from, say, Bicester, or some such place for the occasional lecture - indeed anywhere outside a 500m range from the U5X or U1 routes) they would get a parking permit usually.

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Myron Blatz says...
12:51pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Another example of there being simply too-many private cars on our roads, and clogging-up the streets and verges in and around Oxford. It's quite ironic that City Council refuses new hotel on the basis of insufficient parking, yet the out-of-town Wheatley Campus (greatly swelled since it became part of Brookes) doesn't appear to be similarly controlled - why? Brookes should be made to have sufficient on-campus Student and Staff car parking, and then double-yellow the side lanes in easy walking distance, backed-up by legalised County Council clampers. Little wonder Students get a bad reputation, whilst those who run 'Brookes Education Factory PLC' seem to live on a different planet to the rest of the tax and council tax payers in and around Oxford. Yet another item which the new Thames Valley Police Commissioner should get his 'teeth' into, and prove just how worthwhile his new job, actually is?

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Andrew:Oxford says...
2:21pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Myron Blatz wrote:
Another example of there being simply too-many private cars on our roads, and clogging-up the streets and verges in and around Oxford. It's quite ironic that City Council refuses new hotel on the basis of insufficient parking, yet the out-of-town Wheatley Campus (greatly swelled since it became part of Brookes) doesn't appear to be similarly controlled - why? Brookes should be made to have sufficient on-campus Student and Staff car parking, and then double-yellow the side lanes in easy walking distance, backed-up by legalised County Council clampers. Little wonder Students get a bad reputation, whilst those who run 'Brookes Education Factory PLC' seem to live on a different planet to the rest of the tax and council tax payers in and around Oxford. Yet another item which the new Thames Valley Police Commissioner should get his 'teeth' into, and prove just how worthwhile his new job, actually is?
Wheatley is in the South Oxfordshire Council area rather than Oxford City Council.

The solution really is to build a 1000 space car park and charge students to use it. Why continue with the nonsense of trying to forbid people from using the quickest and most convenient method for travelling to a location in the middle of nowhere?

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jockox3 says...
3:03pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Though Myron is right on one thing - people who wish to use the roads to store their tonne of metal on public space should pay the market value for that right. We now know, thanks to a ****-up in central Headington, that the right to a resident street parking permit (let alone the right to a space which that does not confer of course) is somewhere between £750 and £1500 a year (they claim having the right to one adds about £15k to the value of a one bedroomed flat).

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honey2012 says...
6:57pm Sat 17 Nov 12

these cars are not just the norm for students they are bloody flashy and new!!! i don't know how they do it. and this road is bad enough without these cars being parked along this road. uits so dangeous and needs to be stopped now

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Andrew:Oxford says...
9:14pm Sat 17 Nov 12

honey2012 wrote:
these cars are not just the norm for students they are bloody flashy and new!!! i don't know how they do it. and this road is bad enough without these cars being parked along this road. uits so dangeous and needs to be stopped now
If you're spending £27,000 on a course - it doesn't seem quite such a stretch to buy a new car. A new car is usually more economical to maintain, run and insure than a cheap used one.

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Myron Blatz says...
10:56am Sun 18 Nov 12

Although, like Andrew says, SODC is a key-player at on-street parking issues connected to the Brookes Wheatley Campus, so still is Oxfordshire CC Highways. Ironically (especially for all those anti-car campaigners and supporters of better public transport in Oxfordshire) the real sticking-point has been/remains the relaxation by previous governments to actually limit and/or reduce the requirement - including colleges, universities and hospitals - to provide more on-site parking. The idea was (but increasingly contested by many local authorities and Councillors in England) that reducing on-site parking would a) encourage more motorists not to use their cars, due to the inconvenience of limited spaces and/or on-site parking charges; b) to encourage (therein) more use by motorists of public transport, and Park-n-Ride schemes where applicable. Brookes is one good example of where out-of-town Campus development has simply failed to meet the needs of those who either have no alternative but to use cars, or simply prefer using their cars - and probably especially relevant for part-time and short-course Students. Nor has the provision of extra short-term parking and Thornhills been successful, since many students (together with the masses of people going to London and into Oxford) simply park all over the un-restricted Sandills area, and then get a bus for the short ride to Wheatley! Supermarkets and Hotels have to provide adequate on-site parking, and so should colleges, university sites and hospitals - or, do the NIMBYs, pro-bus or anti-car lobbies have a better and more workable solution?

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riman09 says...
6:01pm Sun 18 Nov 12

sparro wrote:
Quote:-"Her mother, Judy Harding-Saunders, 56, said: “It is so scary if you meet a big lorry. You either have to reverse or drive in a ditch."
However does this woman manage to get out of the ditch? I have never seen it happen, always needs a TOW out. I feel she is exaggerating, to make her comments, look good.
The parking is bad though, maybe yellow lines could be put down, every so often to create gaps in the parking, the passing would be simple.
Very well observed! It is always a case of exaggerating in these instances. The truth lies somewhere there!

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riman09 says...
6:07pm Sun 18 Nov 12

SODC years ago declined extra parking spaces to the Wheatley Campus, and this is the result of their short-sightedness. Some of these students are part-timers from all sorts of places.

Try driving from West London, Slough, Northampton, Stafford-Upon-Avon and then 'park & ride' compared to simply driving to Wheatley. I'm sure you'd opt for the later.

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NinjaBiscuits says...
10:40am Mon 19 Nov 12

People are too ready to blame students every time! If this was a big business complex built in the middle of nowhere the complaints would be that the complex or council has not provided adequate parking, which is clearly the case here. But no, because it's students, who shouldn't own cars anyway apparently, it's their fault for getting in the way.

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jockox3 says...
11:00am Mon 19 Nov 12

NinjaBiscuits - what you are missing is that SODC and the County Council have not permitted OBU to create more parking.

The university applies a distance (currently 500m) from the bus routes it provides at some expense within which, if you live there, you will not be considered for a permit. This applies to staff as well as to students. Why should anyone (whether students or not) be exempted from this?

The only way of reducing that distance would be to have more parking at Wheatley and potentially also run unviable buses as well. Why should the vast majority of both staff and students who do use these facilities be penalised because others won't?

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NinjaBiscuits says...
11:41am Mon 19 Nov 12

jockox3 - who says they're not using the buses? What if (as is likely) the majority of the people parking along that road aren't eligible? And of those that aren't eligible, where exactly should they park? As riman09 already said, if they have already travelled a long way I sympathise that they wouldn't then want to pay for a park and ride bus into Oxford, then another out to Wheatley.

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Bubble7 says...
12:27pm Mon 19 Nov 12

sparro wrote:
Quote:-"Her mother, Judy Harding-Saunders, 56, said: “It is so scary if you meet a big lorry. You either have to reverse or drive in a ditch."
However does this woman manage to get out of the ditch? I have never seen it happen, always needs a TOW out. I feel she is exaggerating, to make her comments, look good.
The parking is bad though, maybe yellow lines could be put down, every so often to create gaps in the parking, the passing would be simple.
sparro, maybe you should drive along the Waterperry road a couple of times and then you tell me whether you feel she is still exaggerating to make her comments look good? I think you might just change your mind mate!

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jockox3 says...
1:48pm Mon 19 Nov 12

NinjaBiscuits: If they live outside the 500m radius from a *Brookes Bus* route, or within Wheatley and Holton itself, then they aren't eligible for a parking permit (which of course only gives them the right to search for a space not a reserved space). If they *are* travelling from further afield and especially part time students attending only a short time each week, they *should*, as I understand the regulations, be eligible for a permit and should ask.

In other words - if they are actually ineligible for a permit, chances are they live very close to a Brookes Bus route they should be using.

By the mere fact that the problem appears to grow worse as semester progresses you can hazard a reasonable guess that it's less likely to be those who, on arranging their course, also looked into how to get there and applied for permits etc if they qualified, but those who, seeing others get away with it now chance it more and more. The irony of course is that as semester progresses, so also does overall attendance fall and any earlier problems with bus overcrowding ameliorate (and no, not because they're all parking on local roads instead!).

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oomphs says...
10:20pm Mon 19 Nov 12

Nobody wants to see the accident that seems only inevitable - it will be likely to be serious, if not fatal; it will be likely to involve a local resident, going about their everyday business and having the misfortune to meet a vehicle driven by someone that doesn't know the road & the parking hazard; it will also quite probably involve a student - at the very least, a student will be indirectly responsible by parking their car on that road. WHEN it happens - standby then for the outcry, from students, from residents, from motorists....and maybe from the parents of a dead student. Maybe then the university will be sued for failing to take control of a situation that has become worse each year for the last 3 years. As one of those that has actively campaigned for this parking to be stopped, I shall get no pleasure from saying I TOLD YOU SO.

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Bubble7 says...
9:57am Tue 20 Nov 12

oomphs wrote:
Nobody wants to see the accident that seems only inevitable - it will be likely to be serious, if not fatal; it will be likely to involve a local resident, going about their everyday business and having the misfortune to meet a vehicle driven by someone that doesn't know the road & the parking hazard; it will also quite probably involve a student - at the very least, a student will be indirectly responsible by parking their car on that road. WHEN it happens - standby then for the outcry, from students, from residents, from motorists....and maybe from the parents of a dead student. Maybe then the university will be sued for failing to take control of a situation that has become worse each year for the last 3 years. As one of those that has actively campaigned for this parking to be stopped, I shall get no pleasure from saying I TOLD YOU SO.
HEAR HEAR!!!! Well said oomphs! I take my life into my hands daily along this road, its only a matter of time before something happens, mark my words.

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Pavinder Msvarensy says...
2:50pm Tue 20 Nov 12

oomps and bubble, do you live in the real world. You yourself said it has been going on for 1,000 days, yet no accident. So hardly "taking your life in your hands" if fact more people have been killed in Oxford's "safe" 20mph zones in that time. If you did not come out with silly emotive statements then we council would take you more seriously, but in the past year there have been over 700 complaints similar to yours with the same statements but no facts to back them up. P.S. You should think about adding "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" to your next quote, as that always gets the headlines, especially if you get a group of them to grimace for The OM photographer. P.S. Bubble, if I thought that I was REALLY taking my life into my hands by driving down this road everyday then I would find another road to drive down. But seeing as you are still here after 3 years then it is obviously not dangerous at all, and you are just anti-student. In 30 years time that will probably be a hate crime as well, so enjoy your bigotry while you can.

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Bubble7 says...
4:15pm Wed 21 Nov 12

Pavinder Msvarensy wrote:
oomps and bubble, do you live in the real world. You yourself said it has been going on for 1,000 days, yet no accident. So hardly "taking your life in your hands" if fact more people have been killed in Oxford's "safe" 20mph zones in that time. If you did not come out with silly emotive statements then we council would take you more seriously, but in the past year there have been over 700 complaints similar to yours with the same statements but no facts to back them up. P.S. You should think about adding "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" to your next quote, as that always gets the headlines, especially if you get a group of them to grimace for The OM photographer. P.S. Bubble, if I thought that I was REALLY taking my life into my hands by driving down this road everyday then I would find another road to drive down. But seeing as you are still here after 3 years then it is obviously not dangerous at all, and you are just anti-student. In 30 years time that will probably be a hate crime as well, so enjoy your bigotry while you can.
Darling Pavinder, I reside along the Waterperry road therefore I have no option but to drive down it! If you look at the picture you can clearly see that the car has no where to go (it is the cars right of way) and there are many blind bends on that road which is 60mph stretch, get it? My only worry and concern is that no one gets hurt or killed as I have faced many near misses myself and why do we always have to wait for the worst to happen before action is taken?! I would suggest you get off your high horse and look at the bigger picture, if there has been 700 complaints what does that say to you!

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oafie says...
5:23pm Thu 22 Nov 12

Having a permit does not equal having an available space.
Not enough parking to even accommodate all those that have permits.
No one wants to allow more parking spaces, SODC or O.CC or local parishes as they all think it will mean increased traffic and more car users.
The Brookes Wheatley Buses are great and very regular but not useful for many part time students in the county. Nor do they offer the security of getting into your own car and getting home to your door late at night.
Many part time students arrive when the car park is full despite the fact they may be leaving much later that night.

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Andrew:Oxford says...
8:00pm Thu 22 Nov 12

why is that a 60mph road, when we have to toddle round the bypass at 50mph for safety?

Surely the speed limit should be dropped to 20mph during term time - just like outside every school and college in Scotland - for safety?

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joey90uk says...
12:01am Fri 23 Nov 12

Hello all,
I am a student and this report is missing some key facts:
Firstly,
"5,000 already given out to students for free." These bus passes are included in the hall price so are not free by any means when you pay over £130 a week.

Secondly,
the bus service is always "sorry this bus is full" at key times.

Lastly,
If you own a Car £80 is a tank of fuel for convenient parking for the year so not expensive pretty good value in comparison to the bus pass.

Sorry Students are a pain, but 1 in 5 people in oxford are students and all we are trying to do is get to lectures on time in the most convenient way.

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