MORE new parking spaces are being planned in Blackbird Leys as part of a drive to spruce up the estate.

Council bosses are looking into whether the spaces – opposite the new multi-million pound swimming pool – will be for residents only.

Oxford City Council is spending £450,000 this financial year to improve communal areas on estates.

Now it has submitted a planning application for 24 new paved parking places on grass verges in Pegasus Road.

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The council has been rolling out similar schemes to tackle street parking in city estates built before car ownership was common.

Pegasus Road resident Brian Lester said: “Something has to be done about the parking.

Oxford Mail:

Brian Lester

“You know what people are like, they want to park in the nearest place available, never mind inconveniencing other people. Sometimes the buses cannot get around because people are parked on both sides of the road.”

Earlier this month the council was given planning permission to create 18 parking places on grassland at The Leys Medical Centre in Dunnock Way.

New spaces have also been created in Ashurst Way, Rose Hill, Blackbird Leys Road and Chillingworth Crescent, Wood Farm.

It is now proposing seven spaces outside 126 to 140 Pegasus Road, 10 spaces outside 142 to 160 Pegasus Road and seven outside 108 Pegasus Road.

A council statement said: “Parking pressure on the estates is continuing to increase, being in the top three issues raised by residents at neighbourhood action groups and in resident surveys.

“Car ownership on the estates is now commonplace, with many families having more than one car and the increased number of houses of multi-occupation also adds to the pressure.

“Parking hotspot locations, particularly at high and low rise flats and cul-de-sacs, have resulted in residents parking on grass verges and larger grassed areas, causing damage to the surface.”

Scott Seamons, city councillor for Northfield Brook and executive board member for housing, said: “There is no set number of new spaces we are looking to create for the whole of Blackbird Leys. We have set our sights on a number of areas where there is too much parking and a lack of spaces.

“The spaces in Pegasus Road are also to do with mitigating parking concerns that will probably arise once the new swimming pool is finished.

“We are looking into whether they will be restricted or not.

“We might look at doing a residents’ parking permit scheme, but if we do that it will be a free scheme.”

No date for a decision on the parking spaces has yet to be set.


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