Ivor Road in Sparkhill, East Birmingham is a typical inner-city street, lined with terraced homes and bumper-to-bumper cars. But residents are blocking the roadside with sandbags, now bins are being used keep kerbs clear.
Although at a glance you’ll see there’s a WHEELIE big problem.
Because parking is so tight that some residents are using their council bins as makeshift cones to ensure they grab a parking space.
One woman said she had no option but to put a bin out because even a dropped kerb did not prevent drivers from parking outside her home.
She said: “It’s a bit naughty but what can we do? Every house has three or four cars and where are they going to park them?
“It’s so hard. Whenever people come, they park and do not move their cars for three or four hours.
“My husband comes back late from work about 10.30pm and we have this low kerb.
“I’ve been putting the wheelie bin for a few weeks and it does work – it puts people off parking here. I only put it when my husband goes to work.”
The problem mirrors the issue in Shakespeare Street, Sparkhill, where a builder used sandbags to block the road, in a bid to sustain access for deliveries to his business.
Saghir Hussain said he had been forced into the drastic action to protect his company, Rashid Brothers Builders.
He said his pleas for double yellow lines to solve the problem had been denied by Birmingham City Council, which he claimed asked him to pay up to £15,000.
And he said he had lost £500,000-a-year contracts as suppliers could not get trucks in and out because of parked cars.
The situation is not limited to Ivor Road and is replicated across the area in spots where there is a lack of off-road parking, terraced homes or close proximity to a busy main road with shops.
Two wheelie bins had been pictured on their side in Medlicott Road, Sparkhill.
A resident living on nearby Doris Road said: “It’s fairly common to see people reserving their parking space using wheelie bins, particularly in the evenings.
“We have had visitors from other towns who just driven passed because they couldn’t find a spot to park.
“But I am not sure whether the situation is unfair; there are just too many cars, quite often several per household.
“I don’t know what the council can do, they cannot just wish extra places into existence.”
Community activist Anwar Afzal said he did not drive on when he saw a strategically-placed wheelie bin.
Mr Afzal, a health and safety consultant, said: “My mother lives on Imperial Road, Bordesley Green and usually locals are double parked, some with large vans, causing difficulties for the ambulance and fire crews who might have to attend.
“I struggle at times to park near my mother’s house and have to park down the bottom of the road or worse still, drive around several times before finding somewhere.
“Recently, the problem has gone from bad to worse, and people are now leaving refuge bins to stop people parking outside their homes.
“I find it disgraceful that people think it’s OK to do this, however it will never deter me as I get out of my vehicle or if I have a family member I ask them to move the bins.”
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “Residents do not have the legal right to park directly outside their own properties and neither do they have the right to reserve these spaces by obstructing the highway and preventing others from parking there legally.”
