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The council and national research has shown that on-street parking is a major concern for Leicestershire residents. Parking proposals must be designed to avoid:
- unacceptable concerns regarding road safety;
- obstructing access for vehicles, including for service vehicles, the emergency services and buses;
- obstructing footways and be a hazard to cyclists and pedestrians, including those with mobility or visual impairments;
- unnecessary clutter;
- creating opportunities for crime; and
- creating points of friction between adjacent occupiers, for example where private accesses are blocked.
In the interests of the safety of all road users and maintaining efficient flow of traffic, the council will look for developments that include well-designed parking layouts (on-street and off-street) that minimise the likelihood of on-street parking problems.
Design of on-street parking
For parallel parking to a road, each vehicle will normally require an area of about 2m wide x 6m long. For echelon (wedge shaped) parking and perpendicular (end on to the road) parking, individual bays should normally be indicated or marked. Bays should normally be about 2.4m wide and a minimum 5.5m long and they should be arranged so that drivers are encouraged to reverse into them. Figure 51 illustrates suggested on-street parking arrangements, and sets- out how to calculate the necessary width needed to access echelon parking.
Where on-street parking could cause problems, the council will ask for swept path analysis (these are likely to include refuse lorries, pantechnicons, fire tenders and buses if the development is to be served by public transport). Where the assessment demonstrates that it is necessary to provide extra width to accommodate on-street parking, this should be achieved either by:
- providing parking bays as illustrated below (bays should not be designated to particular properties); or
- increasing the overall carriageway width. The council can accept localised width variations - it is not necessary for a road to have a constant width and parallel kerb lines throughout.
Figure 47: Examples of on-street parking problems
Figure 48: Good examples of on-street parking bays

Figure 49: Suggested on-street parking bays, parallel and perpendicular parking (top) and widening of carriageway to create on-street spaces (bottom) (Manual for Streets)
Where the council adopts additional areas to accommodate on-street parking, a commuted sums must be paid to cover future maintenance.
Development should be designed following assessment to avoid issues relating to inappropriate parking. As a last resort, bollards, fencing and landscaping might be employed to deter problems (see Pavement parking).
Traffic regulation orders
In certain circumstances, Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) may be needed to control on-street parking, including waiting restrictions and residents’ parking schemes either within the development or on the surrounding highway network. Costs related to TROs must be paid by the developer.