Off-street residential car parking standards

The table below sets out the council’s minimum parking standards for developments of residential dwellings. 

Table 28:  Residential Parking Standards
Use Class Number of Bedrooms (Class C3) or Number of Residents (HMOs) Minimum Required Number of Parking Spaces (excluding visitor parking)
C3 (a), (b), (c) dwelling Up to 3 bedrooms 2 per dwelling
C3 (a), (b), (c) dwelling 4 or more bedrooms 3 per dwelling
C4 - Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Up to 6 residents 3 per dwelling minimum where planning permission is required, but up to 6 desired.   
Suis Generis – HMO with more than six residents More than 6 residents 1 per resident (E.g. 12 residents require 12 parking spaces)

Please note that Classes C1 (hotels), C2 (residential institutions), and C2A secure residential institution) are considered in Table 29b

Residential parking courts

This guidance does not apply to a communal parking court allocated to an individual property or allocated parking spaces grouped together to serve several properties, such as rear parking courts. Experience has shown that many residents make little or no use of rear parking courts. This can result in wasteful use of land and increased pressure on on-street parking. Where communal parking courts are proposed, the council will be likely to resist a lower level of parking provision in-curtilage on the site. 

Residential tandem parking 

The council also recommends that tandem parking layouts be avoided where possible, as these can lead to on street parking by residents of dwellings served by these arrangements due to the inherent inconvenience in their use.  If more than two parking spaces are proposed in a tandem arrangement, only the first two will be counted towards the required minimum parking standards. 

Residential garages

Garages will not normally be counted as a parking space for the purpose of calculating parking provision, unless:

  • the garage meets the minimum dimensions;
  • planning conditions are imposed to control use of the garage; or
  • restrictions are placed on converting the garage to a room that can be lived in.

If a dwelling has no separate parking for cycles, it may affect whether the council considers that the garage is counted towards parking provision.

Garages and gated accesses

“On plot” garages to individual properties should be located so that:

  • cars can park in front of the garage doors; and
  • garage doors can be opened while the car is on the drive (see Table 16) without the obstructing any part of the highway.

Setting back garage doors enables a vehicle to stand clear of the highway while garage doors are opened or closed so as not to block footways and endanger pedestrians.

Where an access is to be gated, the gates should be set back 5m where they open inward and 6m where they open outwards. This is to ensure that the public highway (particularly areas used by pedestrians) is not obstructed if a vehicle is parked on the access in front of the gates.

See Table 16 for garage set-back distances

Garages should have the following minimum internal dimensions.

  • Standard single = 6m x 3m, with minimum door width of 2.3m.
  • Additional accessibility requirements = 6m x 3.3m with minimum door width of 2.8m.
  • Double = 6m x 6m, with minimum door width of 4.2m.

If a dwelling has no separate parking for cycles, it may affect whether a garage should be counted towards parking provision.

During the planning process the developer should assess the requirements for provision of garages to the disability standard.

Residential visitor parking

Visitor parking is required for residential developments of more than 10 dwellings on a basis of 0.25 spaces per dwelling.  In housing developments, this should be provided via suitable on-street parking provision.  In apartment developments, visitor parking should be provided by additional spaces within the allocated parking area.

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Highway Development Management