The Victorian street layout
leaves little room for off street parking and so most cars are parked in the
street. So if you have 5 people in the house with 5 cars you may have a
problem, and one that should be considered when choosing a property; increasingly car parking is being taken into consideration when preparing
houses for rental, but usually at the expence of the rear garden, accessed
by an alleyway, which can be a challange, especially for larger cars.
Traffic wardens are quite efficient in the area so, the
alternative can be quite expensive.
Fitzhugh comes under a residents
parking scheme whereby one permit per house is issued free on application,
it may be possible to acquire a second by payment (about £60 /yr )
Contact details for Parking
Services:
Address: Customer
Services, PO BOX 1098, Southampton SO14 7WE
Telephone: 023 8083 4600
Email:
parking.services@southampton.gov.uk
Website:
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/transport/parking/parkingpermits.asp
On the whole the scheme works
fairly well and you can usually park somewhere near home and rarely having
to opt for the next street, but the scheme works because it is enforced
(sometimes ruthlessly ) and if you do take the chance of parking illegally
the risk of being fined is fairly high
Each residence is also entitled
to a batch of visitors permits for the year to accommodate guests etc, but
if you are having a party or similar gathering a little thought to the
problem of parking is well advised.
There are glorious moments at
certain times of year when the street goes quite as all the students have
gone home and then you can park anywhere!
A frequent local observation is
that you can tell the Student's cars as they are the more expensive ones (
apart from Pete's ) - student loans have a lot to answer for!
In recent years the problem of
parking seems to have been taken up to some extent by landlords (and
planning?) a few student houses at least now have parking at the rear at the
expense of the gardens.
If you do find yourself with a
parking ticket that you wish to dispute ( permit fallen off windscreen or
whatever ) a trip to the Civic Centre may well be worthwhile. You will have
to fill in a few forms but they are quite civilized and generally the
parking services are prepared to respond favourably to a good case. But be
polite, you are going to need to win their symapathy, which will not be
achieved by shouting at them.
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