Residents' parking schemes

A permit costs £40 annually for a resident’s permit. This will rise to £41 on 1 April 2025

Each property is also entitled to purchase a visitor’s permit for £40.

Permits are free for blue badge holders, and free for residents over age 75. A health worker’s permit is also available to allow carers and social workers an hour of free parking in any residential area in Nottinghamshire. There are also permits available for tradespeople. 

Much like neighbouring County Councils, Nottinghamshire has implemented a permit fee to make it possible to run the service at a neutral cost to the Council. 

Some misconceptions about fees have emerged since the fees were introduced in 2010. Some residents thought that the Council administers permits as a profit driver for the Council, or that paying a fee should enable a higher standard of enforcement.

These are misconceptions because permits contribute to paying only for the cost of administering the schemes. This allows schemes to be run at a neutral cost to the Council. Services that are cost-neutral to the Council are considered self-funding services. The permit charges enable the Council to run the schemes in a financially sustainable way.

A scheme must be self-financing and a charge is applicable for each parking permit. The revenue will be used to pay for the cost of running the scheme (for administering permits and enforcement costs). At current charging rates, several hundred households would need to sign up to a proposed scheme for it to be financially viable.

We receive many requests for residents parking schemes, and we consider these against several criteria before responding. It would be helpful if you could include the full details of the parking problems you are having. 

We would also encourage residents who want to propose a new residents’ parking scheme to engage and work with other local residents and their local County Councillor at the earliest opportunity.

Residents parking schemes only work where the problem is caused by non-residents parking in the street; if the problem is caused by residents' vehicles, a controlled zone will not improve the situation. 

How to make a request

To request that your street is considered for a residents' parking scheme you need to make a request using our highways request form.

Make a new highways request

Alternative ways to do this

Alternatively, you can contact us by post: 

Highways Office 
VIA East Midlands Ltd 
Bilsthorpe Depot 
Bilsthorpe Business Park 
Bilsthorpe 
Nottinghamshire 
NG22 8ST 

As opposed to schemes initiated when requested by residents, some schemes are requested by developers.

When a development such as a supermarket or a sports arena is built in a residential area a planning condition can be put in place to address any issues with parking that may arise. This can lead to a plan to establish a new scheme to protect resident parking nearby.

In line with the Policy a scheme can be implemented only if there is support from residents following the consultation process.

Where a local resident has proposed a new scheme, they will be able to receive status updates regarding the progress of their proposal.

The process currently has many parts and needs to include periods for consultation and discussion, so could take anything up to two years.

For example, the formal consultation alone involves advertising the proposed scheme, initially for a minimum of 21 days. The stakeholder consultation is followed by a full public consultation, also for a minimum of 21 days. The NCC consultation periods for both are four weeks, to extend the opportunity for responding and reduce the risk of complaints further into the process. 

Members are currently working to streamline the application process, taking a broad strategic approach that gives consideration to the indirect impacts of potential schemes, and ensuring schemes are enforced effectively and fairly.

The current process works as follows:

• Assessing a parking problem
• Seeking permission from the Cabinet Member 
• Informal consultation phase
• Formal consultation phase
• Implementing a new scheme

Assessing a parking problem

If a complaint is received about a parking problem in an area, the Council will investigate and work with Via East Midlands Ltd, to find out if a new residents’ parking scheme is appropriate, and if so, how best to implement it.  The process for initiating a new scheme begins when a complaint is received that there is a parking problem in a residential area.

The Service assesses the complaint to understand the situation and determine the appropriate action. This assessment considers whether the resident has access to off-street parking. If off-street parking is available, the resident may be asking for the vehicles to be removed from the street for safety reasons. This could be due to congestion or visibility problems, for example. If this is the case, other solutions are explored, such as single yellow lines for daytime or double yellow lines where a 24-hour solution is required. In these cases, a residents’ parking zone would not offer the best solution because the residents already have access to parking opportunities. Consequently, there is very little uptake of permits in places where there is off-street parking.

The assessment also considers whether the intrusive parking is sustained. In areas near schools, for example, there may be an issue during only two short periods in the morning and afternoon on school days. Where this is the case, a residents’ parking scheme would not prevent parents from dropping off their children and picking them up later, because drivers are allowed to pick up and drop off passengers within residents’ parking zones. However, if the area is near a town centre, there may be people who are shopping or working for several hours at a time, creating a sustained parking issue. 

Seeking permission from the Cabinet Member 

If there is evidence of a parking problem, details of the area are submitted in a report to the  Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment. This report is considered by the Cabinet  Member twice yearly. Once the Cabinet Member has approved the initial request for a new scheme the Service is then able to undertake the rest of the implementation process as set out in the Council’s Policy. 

The Service must then consider what will happen if the scheme were to be implemented in  the areas where the problem is severe. The scheme’s potential effects on the surrounding areas also influence how far the scheme should extend. The implementation process starts with an informal initial consultation phase to test the proposed boundaries of the scheme. 

Informal consultation phase

This informal consultation phase was added to the Policy due to the risk that a new scheme could cause displacement of the parking problem. Displacement moves a parking problem to just outside the boundaries of a scheme. This happens because cars will park on the closest street that does not have a parking restriction. For this reason, the team informally consults with residents who live in the area experiencing the problem and in the peripheral areas where more cars would likely begin parking if the scheme were to be implemented. 

The informal consultation process consists of a questionnaire that is sent out to residents who live in the relevant areas. The Council’s Highway Network Management Plan requires the consultation to generate a minimum 35% response rate with at least 65% of these responses being in favour of the scheme. Many schemes fail at this phase of the process because they do not generate enough support from residents.

The informal consultation process offers an opportunity to expand schemes before they come into force if this is desired by residents. At the informal consultation phase, any feedback from residents can be used to adjust the scheme before the process moves into the formal consultation phase. Proposed schemes often change significantly as a result of the feedback received in the initial consultation phase. 

Even though the Service consults with residents in the wider area about the risk of displacement, residents in areas not experiencing the problem are less supportive of a scheme that will have a financial cost to them. The Council does not impose a scheme where this is not wanted by residents. If displacement does occur later and a new scheme is then desired in the nearby area, the process of assessment, signoff and consultation will start again. 

Formal consultation phase

If the informal consultation stage gathers enough support for a proposed scheme, the formal consultation begins. The formal consultation is a statutory process required by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and described in detail in the Local Authorities’ Traffic Order (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996. The formal consultation involves advertising the proposed scheme. The Act requires a two-stage process with the statutory consultees such as emergency services, public transport operatives, and local stakeholders, to be consulted initially for a minimum of 21 days. The stakeholder consultation is followed by a full public consultation also for a minimum of 21 days. The NCC consultation period for both is four weeks, to extend the opportunity for responding and reduce the risk of complaints further into the process.

During the formal consultation, if objections to the proposed scheme are received that cannot be resolved, a report of the objections goes to the Service lead and to the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment for consideration. If the objections are significant and cannot be resolved, the proposed scheme will not be implemented. If the objections result in changes being made to the proposed scheme, the scheme would be delayed for further consultation to be done on the redesigned scheme. 

The Service undertakes the informal consultation prior to the formal, statutory consultation to minimise the likelihood of significant objections by ensuring a proposed scheme meets the needs of residents.

Implementing a new scheme

Following a successful formal consultation, and if necessary, a Cabinet Member decision on any objections, the scheme is passed on to Via partners to implement. Usually, implementing the scheme is done by installing entry and reminder signs rather than by marking lines or bays in roads. Once signs have been installed and checked, the Order is made active with enforcement in place. Approximately five schemes are implemented each year with over thirty schemes currently active across Nottinghamshire.

Additional supporting materials such as petitions usually initiate rather than replace the required informal and formal consultation activity.

The informal consultation process consists of a questionnaire that is sent out to residents who live in the relevant areas. The Council’s Highway Network Management Plan requires the consultation to generate a minimum 35% response rate with at least 65% of these responses being in favour of the scheme. Many schemes fail at this phase of the process because they do not generate enough support from residents, so the most important thing is to show engagement and work with other local residents and their local County Councillor at the earliest opportunity.

Residents parking schemes only work where the problem is caused by non-residents parking in the street; if the problem is caused by residents' vehicles, a controlled zone will not improve the situation. 

The Council’s Traffic Management team oversees the decision-making process around initiating and implementing new residents’ parking schemes and, where appropriate, the removal of existing schemes.

This process is guided by the Council’s policy that is derived from requirements outlined in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (the Act), which gives the Council powers to take appropriate action to resolve traffic issues. Although most of the process around the introduction of schemes are defined by the Act, the Council has added some additional features to the Nottinghamshire policy. 

The Council’s Residents’ Parking Policy is published on the Council’s website as part of the Highway Network Management Plan, which the Council is currently redeveloping. According to the Policy, the Council administers permits to residents, enabling them to park within a designated parking zone for residents who live in the specific streets within the zone.

It is important to remember, that without a permit, loading, unloading, and waiting are still allowed; however, drivers without a permit are expected not to leave their cars unattended for any longer than is strictly necessary to load/unload, etc.

This process is the same as applying for a new scheme. Majority support would be required and each step of the process must be carried out:

• Assessing a parking problem
• Seeking permission from the Cabinet Member 
• Informal consultation phase
• Formal consultation phase
• Implementing a new scheme