Appendix G – Car parking survey results Shinfield Parish Council Parking Survey results October 2014 Survey completed between 25 August and 30 September 2014 Survey forms were sent to around 1500 homes in the following areas, new estates planned and built between 1999 and 2014 387 responses were received 25.8%, 112 were entered via web link and 283 received by post. The following areas were included; Deardon Way, The Manor, Shinfield Park, Ducketts Mead, Mitford Fields, Cutbush Lane, Hilltop Gardens, Oatlands Chase, Kingfisher Grove, Skylark Way, Gloucester Avenue. The survey form was hand delivered to most homes in these areas, respondents could return the survey via Freepost to the parish council or go on-line and complete their answers there. All returns were subsequently entered on Survey Monkey to allow for automatic analysis. We did not ultimately record responses to the tandem parking space question. Respondents were asked to identify their street, but not the number of their home, nor provide any other personal information. The following were recorded Number of bedrooms 13 1 bedroom Homes 56 2 Bedroom Homes 113 3 bedroom Homes 123 4 bedroom homes 58 5 Bedroom Homes 8 6 Bedroom Homes 1 7 bedroom Home Total 1301 Bedrooms This includes a mix of both affordable and open market homes as most of these developments include affordable housing to some extent. Household Vehicle Ownership 4 No Car 124 1 vehicle 227 2 vehicles 32 3 vehicles 9 4 vehicles 4 5 vehicles 1 6 or more cars Total vehicles 736 + 25 motorcycles Average vehicles (including motorcycles) to bedrooms = .58 vehicles to every bedroom 384 homes owned at least one vehicle, Parking spaces excluding Garages 26 No parking space 159 1 parking space 155 2 parking spaces 17 3 parking spaces 19 4 parking spaces 7 5 or more parking spaces 631 parking spaces for 761 vehicles, only 4 homes claimed to own no vehicles, so it follows that every home regardless of number of bedrooms needs at least one parking space Garage Availability 96 No garage 2 Car Port 213 Single Garage 68 Double Garage 5 Triple Garage 7.81% of Double garages were double length Used Garage to park a vehicle Only 86 residents , or 29.9% of respondents, report parking a vehicle in their garage. This figure includes 100% of motorcycle owners (25 respondents) that were parked in garages. 201 people or 70.03% of respondents do not use their garages to park any vehicle. This is far below the assumptions made by WBC consultants in earlier surveys, where parking provision is based on 50% of residents parking in a garage. Two main reasons were stated Garage is not big enough for my vehicle, too narrow or not long enough Use the garage for other purposes mainly storage of household items. Although 7.4% of respondents stated they simply choose not to use the garage at all. Although further analysis is required, virtually no person with a single garage used it to park a car, it would follow therefore that the addition of a single garage of a standard size is virtually a useless addition to a house other than for storage. Street parking 154 residents responded that they regularly parked on the street of these , 84 residents 54.5% admitted they parked partially on pavements or verges due to width of roads or volume of vehicles parked on their street. This excludes any visitor parking as this question was not asked A further detailed analysis of this one survey area was carried out 17 responses were received from a total of 74 dwellings in this street the breakdown of responses is shown below There were a total of 40 vehicles for 17 dwellings containing 51 bedrooms, with only 10 garages between them and 19 parking spaces, an opportunity for 29 vehicles to be parked off road. Yet 22 vehicles were regularly parked on the road, only three residents used their garage to park a vehicle (30% of possible garages) There were only 4 dwellings that had two off road parking spaces, yet three of these residents owning two vehicles parked one vehicle in the road, this suggests that tandem parking spaces common on this development are not used or liked. Gloucester Avenue Parking Responses Gloucester Avenue is a wholly residential Street built around 2005, there are 74 dwellings and responses to the survey were received from 17 dwellings 23% response There is a mix of dwelling sizes in the responses which is typical of the mix within the street 2 x 1 Bedroom, 5 x 2 Bedroom, 5 x 3 Bedroom, 1 x 4 Bedroom, 4 x 5 Bedroom I Bedroom dwelling responses Respondent 1 2 Totals No of Cars Owned 2 2 4 Garages 0 0 0 No of Off Road Parking spaces 1 1 2 Cars parked on Road 1 1 2 2 Bedroom dwelling responses Respondent 1 2 3 4 5 No of Cars Owned 2 1 1 2 2 8 Garages 0 1 0 0 0 1 No of Off Road Parking spaces 2 1 1 2 1 7 Cars parked on Road 1 1 1 0 1 4 3 Bedroom dwelling responses Respondent 1 2 3 4 5 No of Cars Owned 5 2 3 2 2 14 Garages 1 0 1 1 1 4 No of Off Road Parking spaces 0 1 1 1 1 4 Cars parked on Road 4 1 1 1 1 8 4 Bedroom dwelling responses Respondent 1 1 No of Cars Owned 3 3 Garages 0 0 No of Off Road Parking spaces 1 1 Cars parked on Road 2 2 5 Bedroom dwelling responses Respondent 1 2 3 4 No of Cars Owned 2 2 5 2 11 Garages 1 2 1 1 5 No of Off Road Parking spaces 2 0 1 2 5 Cars parked on Road 1 0 4 1 6 Totals Number of Bedrooms 51 No of Cars 40 No of Garages 10 No of Parking spaces 19 No of cars parked on the road 22 These figures suggest that that when this development was constructed using the parking standards in force at the time development plans were approved only 55% of current parking needs were covered. Further calculations suggest that under the current MDD parking standards used by WBC only 72% of actual parking requirements would be catered for. PARISH PLAN – DEVELOPMENT, DRAINAGE AND FLOOD-RISK INTRODUCTION The development of an area is a dynamic, evolutionary process that reflects the interaction between the physical attributes of the area, its relationship to surrounding regions and the needs and aspirations of the indigenous, and incoming, population. Pressures for development change with time, but the effects of past actions on the productivity, amenity and lives of persons living in the area provide valuable insights into potential impacts of further development. This section of the Plan reviews the historical development of Shinfield, the influence of its physical characteristics on the past distribution of buildings and attempts to assess the current and future risks of flooding and other problems, such as foundation settlement, implicit in the Core Strategy. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The parish of Shinfield has a history dating back to the Doomsday Book, almost 1000 years (Jefferies, 1971). In its original form the ecclesiastical parish stretched from south Reading (Merry Maidens) to the boundary with Hampshire at Riseley. Separate ecclesiastical parishes were formed from Swallowfield (including Riseley and Farley Hill) in 1847, Grazeley in 1854 and Spencers Wood in 1907. During the early part of the 20 th century civil parishes superseded ecclesiastical parishes as the basic unit of local government and Shinfield civil parish was formed from the ecclesiastical parishes of Shinfield, Spencers Wood and Grazeley. The town of Reading has been an important crossing point for the river Thames since Norman times, particularly for goods and persons moving between the channel ports of Southampton and Portsmouth and the English Midlands. The parish of Shinfield occupies a ridge of land between the valley of the river Loddon to the east and the Kennet/Foudry Brook valley to the west and thus provided a dry, high ground route southwards from Reading towards Basingstoke, Winchester and the coast. Both river systems retain extensive floodplains (Environment Agency, 2008) and it is noted that that the Doomsday Book recorded 700 eels (Jefferies, op cit ) as part of the annual rent for Shinfield, confirming the long term presence of extensive wetlands in the parish. The area was for many centuries predominantly rural, initially forming part of the western limit of Windsor forest. Clearance progressively changed to the aspect to agricultural, with fisheries and water meadow grazing along the valleys and arable and grazing on the higher land. Early settlement is believed to have been on the higher, better drained land around St. Mary’s church, with much of the remainder of the area being non-nucleated settlements centred loosely around farmsteads. This distribution pattern of land-use and settlement probably persisted for many hundreds of years with a population unlikely to have been greater than about 500. In 1707 Richard Piggat founded the school at School Green to provide free education to twenty boys up to 1 twelve years in age, consistent with a population, in at least the eastern part of the parish, of only a few hundred people. The onset of the Industrial Revolution initially led to rural depopulation but by the mid 1800’s the development of the railways and increased industrial prosperity began the process of expansion of villages and smaller settlements near main market towns. Examination of Ordnance Survey maps held by Wokingham Borough Council show that: • in the 1870/80’s settlements were present around St.