Eric Pickles appears to have done something sensible

Pickles made his name slashing jobs in Bradford council
Martin Bell stood against him in one election on an anti-sleaze ticket
Having passed the "localism" act he immediately started using his powers to over-ride local decisions.
He seems pretty confused about what powers he has and does not have now he has passed this act e.g. on council prayers.
Very keen to promote the flying of council flags and the George cross.
Bit of a gem really. Must try to be more positive about him

Thank you for the lecture.

We aren't really talking about Eric Pickles. My fault; I shouldn't have mentioned him, though I daresay he'd have reared his head anyhow.

But the thread is really about a parking idea that he appears to have supported. Let's just suppose the idea came from someone we can feel positive about....

Then discuss whether it's a good idea.

You can do the negative side of the argument, jess, since that's what you're good at.

Here in Manchester, parking space is difficult to find near Metro stations where lines travel through the suburbs, and private driveways are being rented out more and more now. Adverts online give details of what's available. Agreement is 'at owner's risk.' Parking in the city is ridiculously expensive.

Nearby airport parking is astronomical, so my family often park by my house and either get a lift or a taxi from here to save costs.

Um Bags I would have said you were talking about Eric Pickles given the title of this thread.

It had already occurred to me that without a car I could be renting out my drive to car-owners without garage or car-space in their garden. If they don't mind being blocked in behind one another I could pack in three or four. Hmmm.

Yes, Liz, as I pointed out in my last – that was my mistake (I used the word fault in my last post). I expressed surprise that EP was supporting what looked like a good idea. I should just have remarked on what a good idea it sounded and left Pickles out of it, and then the thread might not have turned into an EP slamming thread but one which discussed parking on empty drives.

Thankfully it seems to be going that way now.

And I've learned from my mistake

But I did not list EP's political faults. That was someone else, and not helpful to the discussion about parking. The poster concerned may disagree.

I'm banging on about this because I thnk far too often discussions are spoiled by focussing on who is involved rather than on what is being proposed.

Just saying, and admitting my own guilt in the thread title.

Farmers close to our local airport opened some of their land so that holidaymakers could leave their cars more cheaply than in the (very expensive) airport. This was started during a recession when farmers were suffering but the local council managed to close them down. I suspect the local councils will manage to squash the innovative idea under discussion as well because they dislike having to be competitive.

Don't suppose the airport parking was council owned was it?
Thank you bags for that complement - you have your moments too in that department
It's August again isn't it, a funny old season for news.

Got it in one JessM

Where I used to live we were withing walking distance of Wimbledon tennis. Lots of houses and local church used to rent out parking space!
Schools near football grounds swell the budget with parking in the playground.

I probably could have let our off street parking whilst I was at work..we were quite near a station... not possible here though as not at work regularly enough!

I can envisage income tax becoming an issue. You can bet your life that many people will fail to keep proper records, fail to declare extra income and so on. It will be an especial pain for those on PAYE as the extra income has to be accounted for separately.

Could be bartered. You park on my drive in return for x. No tax!

Keeping the Pickles theme going instead of starting a new thread I really don't think this effort to cast himself as friend to all the motorists and small shopping centres (while being the enemy of all those evil local authorities) is sensible at all.
Parking is restricted in small town centres etc because space is restricted. If you make it too cheap working people will park there all day and make it harder for people to pop into shops. If you make parking wardens less draconian then people will start parking in places that block disabled access and impede traffic flow (thus alienating motorists). If you take away bollards that are designed to stop people parking on pavements, well guess what, people will park on pavements - again blocking disabled access, making mums with buggies walk into the road and probably impeding traffic flow as well.
Many local shopping centres have been pedestrianised years ago, with car parks nearby. Others can be blighted by people stopping on double yellow lines to pop into a shop, this preventing two way flow of traffic and causing the unpleasantness of a queue of traffic causing more pollution and noise plus delay for other motorists.
And if you take away speed bumps then urban traffic will speed up (in very short bursts) and cause danger and irritation to residents, pedestrians and other drivers.

Would cheap unregulated parking revitalise your local shops and make you want to vote for Eric?

Bang on in general terms about parking in towns, jess, but my interpretation of the idea in the OP was that it was to encourage the use of parking spaces not on shopping streets or congested high streets, but in suburban areas. If my interpretation is correct, then I still think it's a reasonable idea and worth trying. If your interpretation is correct, then I don't think it's a good idea.

I think the parking on drives thing was a different issue bags. That was a minor issue compared to this I think.
I forgot to post the link but here it is:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23837610

I interpret it the same way as bags
Where we live we have residents parking passes (for an annual fee of £15) and we're allowed one visitors pass per residence (ditto price). I'm just wondering if these could be abused and so cause parking problems for residents ie if everyone with a visitors pass rented it out on a daily basis it would clog up the street.

Parking in other folk's driveways has been happening for years in London, especially near tubes and train stations
One newish 4x4 parked in my allocated car park space one Christmas for 4 weeks and it was the best looked after car around as I wanted to see who had the cheek to leave it. It was driven away during the night so I imagine that the person had come from Heathrow to pick it up.

The article jess posted seems to be about getting the balance right. It is true, or so one hears, that high streets are suffering because of internet and out-of-town shopping. I think the government is right to try and tackle the problem. They have to start somewhere if they want to be effective in rejuvenating town centres. The article talks about not having "draconian" parking rules and cluttery obstacles rather than doing away with parking limits entirely.

Of course they are not talking about doing away with parking rules altogether bags but I would be interested to know whether other members agree with him that they are 'draconian' in their own shopping areas, or reasonable in trying to balance the needs of pedestrians and motorists. I have never come across draconian parking regulation.
Yes quite aka once you start bending the rules and asking parking wardens to be flexible and easy going, where will it end for the rule abiding?

They are not draconian enough in our nearest shopping town. People park on double yellow lines all the time and get away with it.

Meanwhile the paying car park is empty.

Sounds like a case for more draconian parking wardens then. Someone parked a rather nice sports car here on Sunday on a double yellow line and got a ticket. Probably thought they would get away with it. Too mean to pay £5 a day for parking while they went off for the weekend on a yacht I suspect.