Opinion : Should there be a ban on leaving commercial vehicles parked in the road?

Driving around the roads of Wycombe can be difficult especially if there are vehicles parked on both sides of the road.

In some areas roadside parking is a real problem. Indeed if there were to be a fire some roads have so much parking its doubtful if the fire engine could get through.

Recently it has come to my attention that a good number of the vehicles parked by the roadside in residential areas are commercial vehicles rather than private cars.

You don’t have to travel far in some supposed residential areas to see white vans, lorries and taxis parked by the road.

The powers that be seem very quick to act when it comes to enforcing the regulations for putting up new buildings and issuing planning permissions. But no matter how many rules and regulations there are to govern the size, shape and colour of the buildings once the houses are built (or converted) it seems that anything goes when it comes to parking vehicles outside.

It’s no good making sure that the window frames in a new house look nice and meet regulations if a whopping great white van is then allowed to be parked outside making the area an eyesore.

In my opinion commercial vehicles should not be allowed to be left parked beside the road in residential areas.

The police and traffic wardens should be able to issue immediate destruction notices in respect of vans and vehicles parked by the roadside that are obviously used for commercial purposes so the neighbourhoods of the town look nice.

Surely if the powers that be are licensing taxi operators then as a condition of the licence to operate the taxi companies should be forced to keep their taxis on private land designated for commercial use when they are not being used. Regular inspections should surely be carried out to ensure the vehicles are not left outside residential houses.

The things is that the drivers of large vans and taxis usually leave them outside the houses of others down the road rather than leaving them outside their own homes. I guess they don’t want to see the ugly monstrosities when they look out of their windows but force other to do so instead.

In think the planning regulations need to go further than just looking at how buildings are constructed, the very roads of the town and what can park there should be covered too.

I say ban lorries, vans and taxis from parking outside private houses so the roads safer and make the town is a more pleasant place to live.

What do you think?

*My next blog will be published on Friday evening around 8pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

You can also follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ivor.wycombe or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Ivor_Wycombe.