Parking suffers from being treated as a footnote to housing. But research regularly shows that parking is the aspect of layout design that provokes most comment from residents. Where
cars are parked is also key to whether a development has activestreets, crucial to making a place feel alive and safe for those
living there. English Partnerships' remit includes the delivery of high quality housing and part of our support for creating sustainable places is this toolkit for parking, produced with Design for Homes.
There is a gap between policy aspiration to reduce car use and the levels of car ownership generated by increased prosperity. Accommodating enough cars to meet reasonable expectations is an important objective, but the parking debate cannot be exclusively about how much. Whatever the level of parking, making it safe and attractive has to be the focus. This toolkit analyses how appropriate and well designed parking can
reconcile policy and consumer aspirations.
