Langstone Car Park

[Wales Jay]

Have any other residents noticed how especially Priory Way / Drive / Gardens, are fast becoming the "Langstone Car Park" for Newport. Car sharing in particular seems to be the "in" thing on our roads and across our driveways. There also seems to be a number of people flaunting David Wilson's covenant with regards to the non parking on drives or roads of commercial vehicles on our estate. I for one have had enough of peoples blatant disregard to not only the law but their neighbour's convenience of access to their driveways and the sad sight of "white vans" parked where ever their owners so choose.

I like many others who live here do not want to look out of my window and see nothing but "white commercial vans" or, in the case of the AA van any other coloured commercial van parked in sight of my house.

The covenant restriction imposed on our properties by David Wilson I believe was and is a very good restriction on the parking of such eyesores and keeps our neighbourhood a nice place to live.

I used to "like" my neighbourhood but at the moment, it is nothing but a car park used by people who don't live here and by people who live here but who have no regard to others i.e. parking on the kerbside instead of outside their own homes or on their own driveways.

If anyone else has experienced such problems please respond to this thread. I know from speaking to my neighbours that complaints have been fed to Simon Lane but to date nothing has been done so collectively I think we need to inform whoever we can including Councillor Attwell in the hope that we can eradicate the problems we are experiencing at the moment.

[Sunelectric]

Is the covenant introduced by David Wilson enforceable by Newport City Council?

[steve]

Welcome

Parking and heavy vehicles have been noted before :-

http://www.langstonevillage.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11129
http://www.langstonevillage.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40781

I have approached Simon Lane several times about this and to be fair he has talked to individuals concerned. I have had " a face full" several times from drivers using Priory Drive as a "park and ride" facility, and I have seen Simon encourage "over night" lorry drivers to leave.

I live near the T junction leading into Ger y Parc and everyday witness excessive speed either entering or leaving the estate, and drivers cutting the corner ending up in the path of oncoming traffic.

This week a couple of cars were parked in Priory Way and a mini bus appeared to collect the occupants. Later in the evening it returned and the cars left !!!! Since traced back to Dunraven Double Glazing Bridgend

Then there are the wholesale delivery vans that come with Newspapers every morning between 3 and 5 to one neighbour in Priory Way who runs a newspaper business from his garage. I can assure you the vans are not quiet or considerate :-(


So yes we can all do our bit to improve Ger y Parc, and we may as a last stand, need the support of our solicitors to enforce covenants, and NCC for any breaches of local regulations. The chances of seeing the Police to encourage good / considerate driving - very low I suspect.

[mcthom1]

I use Priory Drive when visiting family and it can be frustrating when cars are parked where there are signs with a no waiting symbol and "at any time" underneath. Surely these are official so how are these inconsiderate people getting away with it.

[Admin]

I do agree that parking on the Geri-y-Parc estate in general is a problem. Given the premium paid for land, the developers aim was to squeeze as many houses as possible in the given space. No allocation was given to visitors parking. Most houses have at least two cars so drives are generally full.

In our own experience, during our garage conversion, we also extended our drive by bricking over the small grass verge. We'd rather have kept the grass but given we live in a cul-d-sac, visitor parking was particularly difficult for us. I wouldn't like to see this as a cross estate solution, the loss of all greenery would dramatically alter the appearance and ambiance of the entire estate.

Asking people to abide by the developer's covenant and refrain from parking their commercial vehicles on their drives is a big ask. Unless there is a legal requirement to do so, I doubt people will oblige for the sake of neighbourly cohesion. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, just realistic.

There is no easy solution but do we really want to go down the route of legal action to enforce neighbourly consideration from our neighbours?

Langstone in general is lacking in any real community spirit and the recent loss of Hurrans has only help to exaggerate the problem. Any legal mitigation over parking is only going to damage this further.

However, I do feel there are steps we can all take to help alleviate the current situation.

For residents participating in a car sharing scheme, they could make a big difference by ensuring that the 'spare' car is parked on their drive.
If all visitors to the estate could park outside the drive of the house they are visiting, at least that should help minimise others being blocked on their own drives.
Could we all ensure that any early morning\late night visitors to our homes please respect other residents and keep noise to a minimum.
We're pretty much stuck with the parking facilities that we have. But if we all make a bit of effort and show some neighbourly tolerance and consideration then we can all help avoid damaging are already fragile community spirit.

Come of folks, Langstone is in danger of becoming nothing more than a large housing estate, let's all make just a little effort and at least keep the harmony on Ger-y-Parc from deteriorating any further.

[Karl C]

My family and I are new to the estate. Would someone please provide some more deail on the "covernant" that is mentioned in this thread. I think a covernant implies an agreement to behave in a certain way and I know I have not signed up to any such instrument.

I understand what is being said about inconsiderate car use but one will experience that everwhere one lives and local council's are starting to use it as an excuse to generate money by charging for parking permits - I don't want another charge levied against me.

[steve]

Your Solicitor should have a copy - its a set of "rules" that are attached to the house sale. - The usual sort of list probably includes - use as a residential dwelling, parking caravans on the driveway, erecting aerials, size of sheds, noise and neighbours etc - as you might guess its 9 years since I signed ours so its some what cloudy now :-)

[Karl C]

Thanks, nothing like this was brought to my attention... perhaps a failing on my solicitors' part but that's not a point in question. With whom is this covernent made, what is the authority to impose a penalty for breaching it and what are these penalties? I'm asking in the abstract here, I have no intention of parking a carvan on next door's 2-story garden shed, nor do I complain that someone else's occational visitors' choice of vehicle is white and cavenous.

But, if this covernant has any weight then how can it be prosecuted (and if someone is truely bothered then why are they not persuing it?), if it does not have any weight or is not executed as a legitimate means of protest then I guess disgruntled neighbours will soon be reduced to shouting at each other over their fences... or such like... and who knows where that'll lead?

Inconsiderate parking (and any many other inconsideration) are a part of everyday life. The way to deal with it is to provide incentives for not doing it (disincentives never work - just consider how parking fines and speeding tickets are not a disincentive) or alternatives. Perhaps car parking for a well managed car-sharing or park-and-ride scheme would be a useful way of using the derelict ground that was once the garden centre, and this could have potential to generate income (a nominal parking fee in return for managed parking) and prevent it from being used for other purposes (?). There may be a parking based service requirement for people coming down the A449 and M4 rather than drive into Npt.

[steve]

The Land Registry should also have details of any restrictive covenants for your property :-

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/kb/Default.asp?ToDo=view&catId=9&questId=329

an example

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/QDMPS-Portlet/resources/example_register.pdf

and some case-law
http://www.chigwellcovenants.co.uk/case-law

[Pipitas]

Have any other residents noticed how especially Priory Way / Drive / Gardens, are fast becoming the "Langstone Car Park" for Newport. Car sharing in particular seems to be the "in" thing on our roads and across our driveways. There also seems to be a number of people flaunting David Wilson's covenant with regards to the non parking on drives or roads of commercial vehicles on our estate. I for one have had enough of peoples blatant disregard to not only the law but their neighbour's convenience of access to their driveways and the sad sight of "white vans" parked where ever their owners so choose.

I like many others who live here do not want to look out of my window and see nothing but "white commercial vans" or, in the case of the AA van any other coloured commercial van parked in sight of my house.

The covenant restriction imposed on our properties by David Wilson I believe was and is a very good restriction on the parking of such eyesores and keeps our neighbourhood a nice place to live.

I used to "like" my neighbourhood but at the moment, it is nothing but a car park used by people who don't live here and by people who live here but who have no regard to others i.e. parking on the kerbside instead of outside their own homes or on their own driveways.

If anyone else has experienced such problems please respond to this thread. I know from speaking to my neighbours that complaints have been fed to Simon Lane but to date nothing has been done so collectively I think we need to inform whoever we can including Councillor Attwell in the hope that we can eradicate the problems we are experiencing at the moment.Hi I totally agree with all of the above, and I feel very strongly that enough is enough! I have written to both Councillors regarding this issue and I have asked a couple of other questions also, so just to keep you in the loop here it is.......

I have today spoken to David Wilson Head office and I am waiting for them to come back to me regarding the enforcement of the covenants.

Whilst I appreciate that people have to work and will require transport I don't feel it is fair that the covenants seem to be applicable to some and not others!

I have just arrived home from work to find that another Transit van is parked on a drive at Priory Way! This is not acceptable!!

Our options are as follows


1. Contact the developer and ask them to enforce the covenants that they imposed in the Transfer.
.
2. As we are beneficiaries of the covenants we can take legal proceedings and sue on the covenants - this would be better done as a group i.e. other like minded people like ourselves who are also suffering as a result of the breach of covenants.

3. Approach the Local Authority who will monitor the situation. How active the Local Authority will be will depend very much on the Local Authority and the severity of the breach.

An option for a possible resolution, The councillors approach the Landlords of the Commercial buildings that line the route into our development, and propose the following,

Agree to allow residents to park in their parking spaces in the evenings, say from 6.00 pm until 7.00am

All residents wishing to take advantage of this would apply to the Councillor for a parking badge, this would enable you to monitor it.

It would be the Vehicle owners responsibility to inform their Insurance company that their Vehicle is not on their drive. This does raise the question that if a van/caravan is damaged whilst on a drive and the owner claims via their insurance are they actually covered as it is not supposed to be parked there in the first instance!!!!!

Whilst Mr Lane has pointed out this is a "delicate subject" a gentle reminder to all residents twice in the 4 weeks may start to stir some thought processes and dare I say it consciences.

Gypsies - Access via the rear lane of Priory Way and the opposite side leading to Chepstow Road - Can we have a ramblers gate put there to stop the horses being herded towards the fields?

Are we going to have a Neighbour Hood Watch Scheme?

[Simon Lane]

Hi All,

This is a delicate subject; I have been approached by quite a few residents of Ger-y-Parc regarding the issues of:

- visitors parking here and along Priory Drive (yet to be adopted),
- lorries parking here (I do attempt to move them on as best as is possible...even using my best German with the foreign lorries...),
- and also the wider issue of neighbourly consideration / parking.

The covenants are legal (whether, or not, your solicitor informed individuals when purchasing the property), the council do not get involved and it is therefore a civil issue, but I am not sure that we should be heading down the legal route.

I am in the process of drafting a letter to all residents to highlight the concerns of what are clearly a good number of people; I have no doubt that some residents will object to my writing to them on the overall issue, stating it is none of my business, but it is clear that some one has to.....

As stated in the thread, this is a delicate topic and I would really appreciate support from all those voicing concerns when the letters are delivered (hopefully next week).

Grateful for any further thoughts on issues to raise within the letter.

Cheers,

Simon.

[steve]

Not seen Simons letter yet, but Priory Drive now seems to be a storage area for Minibuses :-(

[SallieM]

I don't know if your covenants are the same but ours expired 5 years after the build was complete. This was with Barratt.