Residents' parking
Ever since HPERA was founded, the issue of residents' parking has been debated. Opinions have been divided on the subject, with some people in favour of a residents' parking scheme, and others opposed. In January 2018 we produced these FAQs about parking schemes to help inform residents. The previous administration of the County Council suspended all new parking schemes in early 2020, but this policy was later reversed and it's now GCP policy to introduce residents' parking schemes over most of the city, as a way of encouraging a shift towards cycling, walking and the use of public transport as a means of travelling into Cambridge. There are already schemes covering much of the city, with plans for more to come. Below you can find more information and the surveys that have been carried out on the issue.
April 2025
Summary to date
The RPS that affects our Estate is now known as the “Milton Road Area” RPS, incorporating our Estate, the existing Ascham RPS, “the triangle” (George St, Herbert St, etc.) and a part of Elizabeth Way. The required Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for the scheme was published in March 2024. It had been preceded by an “informal engagement” with local councillors in May 2022 followed by a “formal consultation” in Oct/Nov 2022, and was formally approved when objections to the TRO were scrutinised at the Cambridge Joint Area Committee in July 2024. Works (marking out parking bays and implementing signage) are due to take place during Summer 2025 and a six-month review will follow.
Marked bays in the Milton Area RPS will be reserved for residents only during the times 9.30am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. Residents will be able to purchase an annual permit per vehicle (3 max per household) permitting parking in a Milton Road Area bay during the restricted times. The permit price has not been published yet, but as a guide, the current Ascham price is £70/vehicle/year or £56 for “low emission” vehicles. Permits are not required to park your vehicle on your own driveway. Residents will be able to purchase up to 20 annual “visitor permits” at £18 each. A visitor permit will be valid for up to 5 visits of up to one day in duration, and each will expire after one year with no refund.
​
As a reminder of the proposed scheme, please review the RPS diagrams current at the time of the first consultation, available here.
March 2023
TRO Published
A proposed TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) was published, with a three-week period for comment – deadline 12th April. Full details here.
February 2023
Results of consultation
Details of consultation results following FOI request were not forthcoming because of legal constraints to do with publishing data that was subject to ongoing analysis. Publication was expected to be made along with a report to the GCP executive board. We have not seen a report but we understand that consultation feedback has led to some modification of the plans presented in Oct 2022.
October/November 2022
Formal Consultation
This then led to a formal consultation by the GCP with publication of detailed description, maps, etc.
​
A public drop-in session with officers was held at Chesterton Community College on 19th Oct 2022 and a Zoom meeting on 2nd November – presentation here.
May 2022
Informal Engagement Survey
Following the local elections in 2021 the Conservatives lost their majority on the county council and control was passed to a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Labour. This led to a re-appraisal of the policy on residents’ parking schemes and, in May 2022, an ‘informal engagement survey’ was carried out by local councillors to find out if there would be support for an enlarged residents’ parking zone covering an area around Milton Road.
July 2019
Parking audit
Following the introduction of the nearby Ascham parking scheme in early 2019, Cllr Ian Manning held further public meetings and asked HPERA to conduct a survey of vehicles parked in and around Hurst Park Estate (HPE). Volunteers counted the number of cars parked on the road in each street in the evening or early morning, and again mid-morning, in an attempt to differentiate between commuters’ and residents’ vehicles. You can find our data here.
February 2019
Cllr Manning consultation
Cllr Manning held two public meetings to ascertain whether residents wanted to consider formal controls and proceed to a formal consultation. The meetings were poorly attended by only 7 and 2 people respectively. There were 46 responses to his follow-up survey, of which 27 (59%) were in favour, 14 (30%) against and 5 (11%) unsure. Cllr Manning decided this did not give the necessary mandate to go further. Click here for his blog post on the subject.
December 2017
Elizabeth zone subdivided
Following meetings with residents Cllr Ian Manning and other councillors met with officers and decided that the ‘Elizabeth’ zone should be split into three smaller areas. The map shown opposite is not official, but represented HPERA's understanding of what might be the final outcome. Area ‘A’ proceeded to a formal consultation and introduced their parking scheme. Area ‘B’ decided not to proceed, and our area ‘C’ was put on hold.
March 2017
Residents' views
In March 2017 HPERA conducted a survey of residents to find out whether they wanted us to lobby for a residents' parking scheme. 85 people responded to the survey, of which 62% were in favour and 25% against. 7% wanted to wait and see, and 6% were undecided.
​
A variety of views were expressed. You can find a digest of those views here.
