Ealing Borough Ranked As Most Difficult Place To Park In The UK

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Report likely to put spotlight back on shared bay policy

A new report has concluded that Ealing is the most difficult place to park in the entire country.

The data in the report by Go Compare shows that on a typical day there are 173 in the borough for every parking spot. British drivers spend on average four days a year looking for a parking space but that is likely to be much higher locally according to the conclusions of the survey.

The report is likely to raise questions again about Ealing borough’s controversial policy to introduce more shared parking bays across the borough which critics said would encourage commuters to park near local tube and train stations. However, Ealing Council have dismissed the conclusions of the report saying the methodology is flawed.

Based on the ratio of vehicles to parking space, GoCompare has measured which cities, towns and boroughs are the hardest to find a parking space. Only the London boroughs that had at least 3 Park Mark-registered car parks by 31st August 2018 were included in the research - therefore, not every borough is featured.

Data was sourced from the British Parking Association’s Park Mark Award database and the Department for Transport’s Average Annual Daily Traffic Flow (AADF) within each local authority.

Ranking of the hardest cities, towns and boroughs to find a parking space
Area	Ratio of cars to parking spaces
Ealing	173
Enfield	157
Wakefield	156
Kirklees	137
Hackney	132
Hillingdon	125
Stockport	125
Canterbury	124
Sandwell	121
Tunbridge Wells	108

Source: GoCompare

However, the report also found that Ealing is also the most disabled-friendly borough, with 9.4% of sparking spaces reserved for disability badge holders compared to just 2.4% in neighbouring Hounslow.

A spokesperson for Ealing Council said, "the methodology Go Compare are using to obtain their stats is very flawed and has given rise to some pretty outlandish figures which are easily misunderstood and may cause alarm to lay person.

"Firstly, the work fails to take into consideration any on street parking spaces. On street parking accounts for over 70% of the visitor parking spaces in Ealing.

"Secondly, we suspect Ealing’s figure is high because the number of off-street parking spaces with Parkmark accreditation (a great many private car parks don’t have this, though most of the Council’s do) is modest compared to the number of journeys – but not every journey is expected to end with the driver hunting for a parking space. Especially when the number of journeys is greatly inflated by motorists just passing through the borough on the A40 or North Circular. Therefore the stat of 173 cars per parking space is pretty meaningless and does little to illustrate the true level of parking demand in Ealing."

November 16, 2018