With car ownership increasing, on-street parking, and the conflict which it can cause in residential areas, have become more of a problem. Many householders have difficulties; sometimes amounting to the complete obstruction of private access to their home.

White lines

In some areas, white advisory road markings can be provided at a relatively low cost and relatively short notice (8-10 weeks depending on the contractor's workload). They must be approved by an engineer who will assess their practical and environmental acceptability.

• They must be funded by the applicant. The charge is £168 and covers VAT, installation and maintenance.
• We will install and try to maintain them although we cannot guarantee to do so.
• Such markings have no legal significance: they are only advisory and can be parked on by any other driver, but experience elsewhere has shown these markings are respected by the majority of road users.
• The markings size will be kept to a minimum to avoid creating additional parking problems for your neighbours.

What to consider

Technically, obstructing any part of the highway is an offence and the police can take action, but, realistically, calling the police on each and every occasion a vehicle blocks access is impractical.

Yellow lines are seldom the answer as they involve long and expensive legal procedures, advertising, and consultation as well as the cost of the lines themselves. We will not justify this expense for individual houses.

Many villages and outlying areas of towns do not have traffic wardens and we believe we should not provide yellow lines where they cannot be enforced.

How to request white lines outside your property

• If you have not already done so, send an email to our Highway Enquiries Team, explaining the problem and enclosing a sketch of the location you want the markings and a photograph of your private access. This should ideally show both ends and any adjacent road markings. Please include your telephone number as well if possible.
• An engineer will usually visit the site and assess the feasibility of your request.
• We will let you know our decision within a couple of weeks and, if the application is approved, send confirmation.
• Once the location of the line has been agreed upon, we will send you an invoice with instructions on how to pay.
• When we have received payment we will arrange with our lining contractor for the work to be done. To minimise cost it will be done when the contractor is next in the area (this may mean a slight delay).
• In the unlikely event that lines are removed due to resurfacing or excavations in the road we will try to replace them but cannot guarantee to do so.