Residents have spoken out against a council’s plans to curb parking offences in a cul-de-sac.

People living in West Reach, Stevenage, say there are currently not enough legitimate parking spaces for the number of residents. As a result, people often park on the verge and, they claim, this has been the norm for many years.

Now Stevenage Borough Council has begun issuing warning notices this week to anyone who is caught parking on the verges, with fines due to be issued from January 6.

The policy affects 84 roads in the Bandley Hill and Shephall areas of the town.

Resident Luke Greenberg, 40, said: “I’ve lived here for over five years and the council doesn’t seem to realise there is simply not enough space for everyone who lives here to park comfortably.

“Of course we understand parking on the verges isn’t technically correct but it’s the only way we can do it otherwise people wouldn’t be able to get in and out of the street. The council say there was a consultation period but I don’t recall ever receiving any kind of information about this coming into place.”

Bill Penman, 77, has lived in West Reach since 1970. He said: “I’ve been living in the area as long as anyone and the parking situation has always been the same. There is simply not enough room for everyone to park and the council is making a difficult situation a lot worse. If everyone parks on the road then cars will have to drive across the verge just to get past.”

A spokesman for the council said: “When the earlier estates were built by the Stevenage Development Corporation, they were not designed to accommodate the number of vehicles households now have. The council’s parking strategy has recognised this problem and acknowledges that something needs to be done to restrict the number of vehicles parking on verges, footways, junctions and bends.

“Earlier this year, we carried out a six-week consultation with residents, when we wrote to each household seeking their views on various verge parking options. Following that, we reviewed all the comments we received and made amendments to our proposals, before we carried out a formal consultation in July and August this year.”

The spokesman added that the council placed public notices in the local media and on lampposts, as well as making hard copies of the proposals available to the public.