ANGRY tenants have slammed housing provider Orbit for failing to act over parking problems outside their homes.
Residents in Allen Close in Studley say they have complained for months about an abandoned car which has been there for more than a year and takes up two parking bays.
A second one has been there for at least three months while the tenants, who are elderly and disabled, also have to contend with displaced able-bodied drivers leaving their cars outside their bungalows.
John Sowerby, a 68-year-old who suffers from osteo-arthritis, is typical of the tenants.
He said: “We have two issues here; one is the abandoned cars, which Orbit say are not their responsibility to move, and the second is, we are all elderly and disabled and we have people parking here who do not live here.
“What we are asking for parking spaces for the 12 bungalows here – all it will cost is a tin of white paint.
“But Orbit are saying we would need parking management – but they have done it just down the road and now the cars that shouldn’t have been parking there are parking outside our houses.”
The residents have won the backing of County Councillor Clive Rickhards (Studley, Lib Dem) who said: “Orbit say they are ‘building communities’ yet the parking situation in Allen Close has come close to fisticuffs.
“It’s a ludicrous situation, and the crazy thing is is that what the residents are asking for, Orbit has already done just down the road, yet they are refusing to do it here. They just do not seem to want to help.”
A spokesperson for Orbit said: “We put the customer at the heart of everything we do and will therefore be looking to deal with the concerns raised by sending one of our property managers to investigate the issue of abandoned vehicles as a matter of urgency.”
He added they would also look into the possibility of providing parking spaces for local residents.
