Parking

With over 11,700 students and 1,700 staff at Royal Holloway, it’s a reasonable assumption that many of them will own a car and want somewhere to park it when they arrive at the campus.  The college though, makes very little provision for parking and this has led to a significant number of parking issues for the local community.

Local residents will be aware that the campus sits in the immediate vicinity of Egham and Englefield Green and so, with limited on-campus parking, both staff and students alike have resorted to parking in the residential streets that border the campus.

This problem isn’t limited to the college’s normal daytime operating hours either, as many students choose to in live in the community and the proliferation of HMOs has increased the density of students thereby increasing the pressure on kerb-side parking spaces too.

Royal Holloway could, of course, help to alleviate the problem by providing more parking in its 135 acre campus but it’s done just the opposite: the college’s new hanger for drone research is to be built on space currently used for car parking and, as a result, 60 parking spaces will be lost.  The college describes the hanger as ‘temporary’ although detail in the planning application says this could be up to 15 years, with no guarantee that the site will be returned to its former use afterwards.  In the meantime, it’s likely that the cars that previously parked here will be displaced out of the campus onto the local streets, placing even more pressure on the community.

An alternative solution for local residents could be the introduction of either a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) or a Residents’ Permit Parking scheme, but both of these can be controversial and divisive.

It’s important to realise that while it may be highly desirable to park on the road outside of your own home, no one, if fact, has a ‘right’ to do so.  Roads are public highways and the authority responsible for maintaining them – and controlling the parking on them – in Egham and Englefield Green is Surrey County Council.

In addition to the yellow lines that we are all familiar with, the highways authority can implement CPZs and Residents’ Permit Parking to help alleviate specific parking issues.

CPZs are generally used to control parking on all roads within a larger area and use yellow lines and parking bays which are enforced during certain hours and those restrictions are shown on large signs at entry points to the zone.

Residents’ Parking Schemes though, are used to give priority over any available parking space within a defined area to a permit holder.  Such schemes are normally used where residents are finding it hard to park near their homes because there are large numbers of non-residents trying to park in the same area.

Residents’ Parking Schemes typically operate over a smaller area than a CPZ but can operate within one.  Residents’ Parking Schemes typically cover one or two streets and the controlled areas are defined by parking bays marked on the road with white lines, and post-mounted signs on the edge of the pavement provide details of the scheme such as the operating days and times.

Although implemented by Surrey County Council, these schemes are administered by Runnymede Borough Council and it is necessary for residents to purchase an annual permit to use the parking bays.  However, having a permit does not guarantee that a parking space will be available for you at all times as there may be more permits issued than parking bays available.  However, the schemes do give permit holders priority over all other road users during the days and times of operation.

If a space is not available though, then your vehicle must be parked elsewhere and in compliance with any other parking restrictions that may apply to that alternative location. Further details of these schemes can be found on the Surrey County Council website