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Limit on garage size reversed to bring drivers back off the streets

Satch

Satch

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Surrey
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Good God. An outbreak of common sense involving cars! :eek:

"A decade after the Government ordered developers to discourage car ownership by making it difficult to park, a local authority has produced new guidance that acknowledges that the policy has failed.

Far from reducing car usage, the policy has turned modern housing developments into obstacle courses for pedestrians and cyclists, who routinely find pavements and cycle paths occupied by cars with nowhere else to park.

A study by Essex County Council found that 78 per cent of garages were not being used to store vehicles, largely because a trend towards larger cars and 4x4s meant that many did not fit comfortably inside the space. "


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/article5920679.ece
 
many affordable new mainstream homes and even more posher ones built today only can fit one car on the driveway - 2 at best. many families now have 2 or more cars.....
 
one of the many reasons we moved to a house built in the late 50s rather than a newer one. ..... more land and bigger house. double garage. my previous house was a newbuild. fairly big 4 bedroom detatched but only 1 car sized driveway. we actually put 2 cars side to side just by removing and tarmacing over the side flowerbed and this widening the driveway but legally speaking i dont think we were "allowed" to do that in the deeds. saying that, the garage was quite long and not too thin. The W208 CLK fitted quite well.
 
Garage in my 9 year old town house is too narrow to fit an average size car. Certainly my W203 wouldnt fit.
As I needed an extra room for storage, I converted the last 12 foot into a storage room and left the remaining 6/7 foot for car and garden junk.
Only one car driveway, so block paved over the grass area and now have two off-road parking areas. Similar to SilverSaloon, above.
 
I have no driveway and am reluctant to convert my front garden to a drive. The main reason I bought my house was because of the double width garage at the rear :D
 
Suprisingly, the space in my newbuild apartment's underground car park is quite large:

3573826.jpg
 
Satch said:
Good God. An outbreak of common sense involving cars! :eek:
Click to expand...
From everyone but car owners it would appear.
Satch said:
A study by Essex County Council found that 78 per cent of garages were not being used to store vehicles, largely because a trend towards larger cars and 4x4s meant that many did not fit comfortably inside the space. "[/I]
Click to expand...

Even as a toddler I could understand that if I chose a large size brick it didn't fit through the hole designed for a standard one...
 
There is no chance of parking my car in the garage! It's full of crap!

Saying that, only a very smal car would fit. Driveway have space for 2 cars in tandem.
 
Dieselman said:
From everyone but car owners it would appear.


Even as a toddler I could understand that if I chose a large size brick it didn't fit through the hole designed for a standard one...
Click to expand...

Does your car easily fit into a 5m x 2.5m garage then Dieselman?

I think the point was the government deliberately made them too small for cars.
 
Dieselman said:
From everyone but car owners it would appear.


Even as a toddler I could understand that if I chose a large size brick it didn't fit through the hole designed for a standard one...
Click to expand...

The real problem lies with the fact that garage sizes of today are still firmly rooted back in the time when the peoples car was an Austin 7.
I bought a semi that was built in 1935 and the garage was about 7 foot wide by about 15 foot long. Just about big enough for the original Mini. The garage built into my current 9 year old town house is not much bigger. About 8 foot wide by about 17 foot long.
Garage sizes have not kept pace with the general increase in car sizes. Even a current Fiesta would struggle to get in my garage. And thats not really the main problem. Thats getting the door open with enough room to to get in and out. Car doors on current 2 door cars are HUGE and need a good 2 extra feet of side space for access.
If I was aked, I would estimate that as a minimum size for a modern garage should be an 8 foot wide clear door width (to clear those large wing mirrors) with 10 foot internal width and 20 foot long.
And to be honest. I cant see THAT happening until hell freezes over.



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LOL, I thought you drive a C class, in which case if you dont struggle to get out of the car in a 2.5m garage then you must be thinner than a racing snake.
 
I have a 30's house which had a veeerrry long garage which however was Austin 7-wide. So b***er all use.

Kept the front few feet for tools/bikes/roof box and converetd the rest to be kids playroom - much more useful.

Got space for two cars on drive, three at a squeeze
 
I have an 18 month old new build - driveway fits exactly 1.5 cars - just as the government intended! Garage more or less useless but fits my freezer/tools etc perfectly!
 
Sorry are garages meant for cars??? I just thought we had a double store room....:confused::confused:
 
We have a garage 20 foot wide by 30 foot long and a drive which could park about a dozen or more cars.

No prizes for guessing where the junk is kept and where the cars are parked!
 
lewyboy said:
No prizes for guessing where the junk is kept and where the cars are parked!
Click to expand...

Don't your old sofa's and boxes get wet on the drive..??
 
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