Parking controls FAQ

Here is the latest FAQ published by Pevaral: -

 INGRESS PARK DEVELOPMENT GREENHITHE KENT CAR PARKING – MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTI0NS

This note has been prepared in order to assist residents regarding parking on Ingress Park Development. Please note that all residents, whether owners, landlords or tenants, are bound by the development’s restrictive covenants.

Listed below are some frequently asked questions:

1) Why does Ingress Park Development benefit from restrictive covenants? Restrictive covenants are there to benefit everyone living in Ingress Park and to ensure that the development remains clean, tidy, safe and enjoyable for everyone.

2) Why has it proved necessary to enforce the restrictive covenants? There are a number of residents who complained that their access ways are being blocked, they cannot access their garages, there is no parking available for their visitors and there are commercial vehicles everywhere. Some residents are “preserving” Visitor Parking bays (VPs) as their own private parking space(s) and commercial vehicles are being parked on the development and in VPs.

3) Why are residents not permitted to park in a VP space? Please see The Third Schedule (Transferee’s Covenants) Part A (Restrictions) which states at paragraph 1: “ ….. and not park any vehicle on any part of the Development which shall include Visitors Parking Spaces and the Disabled Visitors Parking Spaces.”

4) Can I park in a VP if it is outside my house? The covenants state that you are not allowed to park your vehicle anywhere other than in your allocated parking space/s. Please see the Restriction referred to at (3) above which applies to all VPs and Disabled Visitors Parking Spaces throughout the development.

5) Can I park in front of my garage(s)? You will need to check your title plan to ascertain if such area is defined as an allocated parking space. You should have received a copy of such plan from your solicitors when you purchased your property. Alternatively, you can obtain a copy of your plan from the Land Registry. Please visit www.landregistry.gov.uk. If you are in any doubt as to the meaning of the restrictive covenants contained within your Transfers and/or Leases or require any further information, please contact your solicitors who will be able to assist you further.

6) What is the definition of a commercial vehicle? Determining a commercial vehicle in the broad sense Point one: identify a passenger vehicle. See below, clearly defined in the RTA 1988 Road Traffic Act 1988 Part vii Section 187 Sub section (4) In this section "passenger vehicle" means a vehicle constructed or adapted for use solely or principally for the carriage of passengers. “No mention of goods or any thing else other than passengers”(note) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Point Two: Identify commercial vehicle The Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994 No. 3117 Interpretation Part 2 "Commercial vehicle" means a motor vehicle which is— (a) a goods vehicle with 4 or more wheels, or (b) a passenger vehicle with more than 8 seats in addition to the driver's seat; In reference to the above (a) one must now define a goods vehicle (b) this would now include buses ( most sizes) etc and must have a minimum of 9 seats therefore smaller type mpv’s etc would not be caught in this definition Road Traffic Act 1988 Part vii Section 192 Interpretation (1) “Goods” includes goods or burden of any description, “Goods vehicle” means a motor vehicle constructed or adapted for use for the carriage of goods, or a trailer so constructed or adapted, “Carriage of goods” includes the haulage of goods, Page 3 of 5 One can surmise from the above that a commercial vehicle, is a vehicle of no particular size for the purpose of carrying goods and does not include a passenger vehicle unless such vehicle has 9 seats or more.

INGRESS PARK DEVELOPMENT INGRESS PARK (GREENHITHE) MANAGEMENT LIMITED (IPGM Ltd)

1) What are the aims, objectives and function of IPGM Ltd? IPGM Ltd is a limited company, registration number 4035709; registered address: Station House, 9-13 Swiss Terrace, Swiss Cottage, NW6 4RR and is governed by the memorandum and articles of association which define the responsibility to manage Ingress Park developments, public open spaces. The Board of Director’s consists of: 3 Crest Nicholson Directors 2 resident Directors 1 Borough Councillor 2 Town Councillors. Board meetings take place at least every 3months and more frequently if required. The function of the board is to ensure that the public open space is managed, safely for the benefit of those who wish to use it. At IPGM board meetings, Consort Property Management (a division of Peverel OM), the management company on the development actively take part at board meetings, which provides an excellent opportunity to discuss matters that affect the public open space; as well as any other matters affecting Ingress Park.

2) How do I find out what occurs at IPGM Ltd board meetings? Board meeting minutes have been included on the Avenue website for some time. Further Minutes are added as and when they become available.

3) What is Consort Property Management’s (a division of Peverel OM) relationship with IPGM Ltd? Consort PM work(s) for IPGM in two ways. They are employed as Company Secretary and are also employed to undertake the day to day management of Ingress Park’s public open spaces on IPGM’s behalf. Most importantly, Consort PM is required to bring any matters to the Board of Directors attention. Leasehold properties and access ways do not form part of the public open space and thus do not fall under IPGM’s official remit. Thus Consort PM’s role manages these areas separately.

4) Why was the IPGM Ltd Board’s recent letter dated 9 June 2009 about parking not on headed paper? The letter to residents was dispatched by Peverel OM (on behalf of Consort PM) from Luton. The IPGM Board expected this communication to be sent out to residents in the normal way on Peverel’s paper. Unfortunately, an administrative error occurred and this did not happen. Directors are very clear that they wish all residents to know that this was not intentional. Every year each household living in Ingress Park receive a full set of the IPGM accounts and you will find all the Company’s details on page 2, including the contact details. Additionally, as the manager employed by IPGM for the day to day running of the public open space, Consort PM is available to pass on any queries to the IPGM Board of Directors or to deal with any public open spaces matters on our behalf.

5) Why didn’t OPC’s letter contain the first batch of parking permits? Consort PM uses Neopost computerised process. This service sends out mail via this system and inserts letters into envelopes. As the scratch cards are not produced by this computerised system, it was not possible to include them in OPC’s letter. Additionally, not all residents will require any scrat cards at all, or the 10 allocated per month. The Board of Directors are mindful to keep cost as low as possible so as to not waste resident’s money.

6) Why are we limited to 10 overnight visitors per month? It is not the Board’s intention to ration the number of genuine overnight visitors that residents have to stay. The 10 per month limit is merely an attempt to prevent misuse of these permits by those residents intent on preventing the guests of others from parking in VPs. OPC has measures in place, upon enquiry; where legitimate longer visits are due to occur. 7

) Why are there OPC’s signs around the Development? Parking enforcement signs need to be clear and easily seen to ensure no one receives a ticket unfairly due to a misunderstanding. Residents complained that the old CT signs were difficult to read; as a result the signage being placed on the development has taken this into consideration. The Board of Directors would much prefer that neither signs nor parking controls were necessary at Ingress Park. However, it has been shown that in order for residents to have unhindered access to their properties, as well as for their visitors to park without worry in a VP, controls are needed. Lack of controls has also given rise to difficulties for pedestrians, cyclists, dustcarts, and mostly importantly, emergency vehicles.

8) Why is all parking enquires to go to OPC and not Mr Felix Densu at Peverel OM? It has been found in the past that parking queries were taking up too much of Felix’s time, severely preventing him from attending to his other duties. Additionally, he was frequently subjected to quite shocking abuse from some residents. Under Health & Safety, the Board of Directors took the decision to employ OPC to administer the controls fully.

9) Why was the number of parking spaces outside the old show home reduced? Dartford Borough Council originally required this area to be returned to grass. Whilst it would have been easier and more cost effective for Crest to have left Page 5 of 5 this area as it stood, Kent Highways would allow only parallel parking, in keeping with Highways Regulations.

10) It doesn’t seem like there are enough visitors parking spaces on the development , what can be done about that? There are 120 VP’s on the development and this should be sufficient (and meets the Council Planning needs). Unfortunately, these bays are regularly parked in by residents who don’t park their vehicles in their allocated spaces i.e. in the underground car parks or in their allocated garage (if they have chosen to use this for household storage). It is our wish that visitors to the development (and fellow residents) should not be inconvenienced by residents who use the bays in this way.

11) How do you intend to ensure the enforcement of fine payment, it hasn’t worked in the past? It has worked in the past and OPC have successfully prosecuted residents for non-payment through the courts.

12) Will action be taken if I report a resident who regularly parks in VP bays, and who should I contact? You should contact OPC directly. Consort Property Management (a division of Peverel OM Ltd) are no longer involved in parking matters.