Support for restrictions to stop ‘aggressive abuse’ of parking at Cambridge’s Ironworks development

New restrictions to stop the “aggressive abuse” of on-street parking in a Cambridge development have been supported by councillors.

Cambridgeshire County Council plans to introduce measures to stop on-street parking in the Ironworks development in Mill Road, except in designated parking bays.

The authority said parked cars and other vehicles were causing health and safety concerns and were blocking designated crossing points.

Councillors from the county council and Cambridge City Council shared their support for the new restrictions at a meeting of the Cambridge joint area committee on Monday (29 July).

City councillor Richard Robertson said the problems around parking in the development had been “anticipated” three years ago.

He said the site was designed to only allow for a small amount of parking, but without any restrictions people could “park all over the streets”.

Cllr Robertson said they had asked for parking controls earlier, but explained they had been told it was not possible until the roads were adopted by the county council.

He said now they were finally at the stage where proposals for the parking restrictions had come forward, despite the roads not being adopted. He added that he hoped others found the plans to be acceptable.

City councillor Katie Thornburrow said: “This is the most aggressive abuse of local parking I have ever come across.

“People hover waiting for the residents to move out from in front of their homes and people will pop in and park in designated spaces in front of homes, in front of garages, blocking garages, and then just going to the station and being away for days at a time, so this can’t come soon enough.”

A consultation on the new on-street parking restrictions was undertaken, which received 14 objections, 54 comments in support and four neutral responses.

Some of the objections raised said it was “unfair” to stop people living in the development from parking on the street. Officers highlighted that the development was always planned to have minimal parking.

Cllr Robertson said people were told when they moved into the development that there would be parking restrictions introduced at some point.