Bad parking is ‘rampant’ and needs crackdown

GUIDELINES for reporting illegal parking have been shared by a parish council after a villager complained the issue was “rampant”.

Sonning Common Parish Council shared guidance on its Facebook page after confirming it did not have power to directly enforce restrictions.

It follows a council meeting last week where former parish councillor Tom Fort asked the council if it had plans to get restrictions in the village enforced, particularly in Wood Lane.

Mr Fort said: “As a daily observer of the village, illegal parking is rampant, never been worse.

“There, on the other side of the Co-op, in front of the Co-op, on the other side — that’s where it’s concentrated but it’s elsewhere as well, at a time when the car park is pretty much never full.

“As you all know, there is no single source of rage and resentment in this village that exceeds the parking situation.”

Clerk Andy Donachie confirmed that street parking enforcement had been taken over by Oxfordshire County Council from the police.

He said the council had appointed a contractor to enforce restrictions across the county but said that in his six months in post he had not seen an enforcement officer in the village.

Mr Donachie said he had contacted the county council to ask for an enforcement officer to visit the village more frequently but was told he could report illegally parked cars online.

“I’m trying to do that as much as I can,” he said. “It’s difficult for me to do it myself, maybe we need to do some publicising of the method for residents to do it.”

In December 2023, parking restrictions were extended in the village in an effort to clamp down on illegal parking.

The county council had double yellow lines added to the road outside the Day Lewis pharmacy and by the bus stop in Wood Lane.

A “keep clear” road marking was added outside the Co-op car park and the loading bay lines in Woodlands Road and the double yellow lines outside the Co-op were repainted.

However, Mr Fort told the meeting that these were beginning to fade.