{"id":185495,"date":"2025-06-15T04:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T04:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/185495\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T04:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T04:45:13","slug":"residents-finally-move-into-controversial-perry-barr-flats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/185495\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents finally move into controversial Perry Barr flats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Families have finally moved into the trouble-plagued \u00a3500 million Perry Barr flats scheme – to find they cannot park nearby.<\/p>\n

It’s the latest issue to dog the controversial project, which is set to make an estimated \u00a3150 million loss and leave taxpayers with an \u00a38million-a-year bill for an astonishing 40 years.<\/p>\n

A hard-hitting report earlier this year savaged Birmingham City Council over the project<\/a>, which replaced the former Birmingham<\/a> City University campus with housing initially intended to have been the 2022 Commonwealth Games<\/a> athletes’ village.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Birmingham Children’s Hospital offers ‘harsh truth’ as staff fight to save teenage stab victims<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

That deadline came and went and the flat blocks stood empty until recent weeks, next to a still-unfinished ‘Box Park’-style development promised a part of the area’s Games-related regeneration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now the first residents have moved in – but some say they cannot park nearby. The council is now scrambling to find suitable space.<\/p>\n

The issue affects council tenants being housed by the authority, who do not have access to underground parking.<\/p>\n

The council said the development was built with a “reduced number of car parking spaces” because of the area’s “good connectivity” and “excellent access to public transport”. It insisted residents had been well aware of the parking rules.<\/p>\n

But a single mum said she had been hit with three \u00a360 fines, saying she had “no choice” but to park on double yellow lines – including two occasions when her young daughter was unwell.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old mother-of-two, who fled her previous home because of domestic abuse, said: “The apartment is really nice, I’m very lucky. But the parking is a nightmare.<\/p>\n

“We can’t park underneath, we can’t park on site, and we can’t park outside. There are yellow lines everywhere outside the Perry Barr<\/a> village. There’s no parking anywhere.”<\/p>\n

She said she was concerned her former husband would see her car parked up outside the village, revealing their location.<\/p>\n

She said: “Give us some land where we can park or let us park outside our block.<\/p>\n

“I’m not asking for much, I’m so grateful for my apartment, I just want to be able to park outside.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A general view of Perry Barr Village -Credit:Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live<\/p>\n

“Everyone is annoyed. Everyone is just parking everywhere, ten, 15 minutes away, but for people who have kids it’s especially difficult.”<\/p>\n

The nearby One Stop shopping centre allow four hours parking, but the mum added: “I can’t keep moving my car, even then there is nowhere to move it to.<\/p>\n

“It’s stressful because I’m on my own, I’m a single mother, I can’t ask anyone for help.”<\/p>\n

One two occasions, she said she risked fines on double yellow lines as her four-year-old daughter was unwell.<\/p>\n

\"She's<\/p>\n

She’s been fined three times for parking outside her own property on double yellow lines -Credit:Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live<\/p>\n

“She vomited all over her clothes, I had to park up, she was soaked in sick, my other was about to cross the road and I had to shout her back to stop her going into the road.<\/p>\n

“I had my shopping, it was an absolute nightmare. I even said I would rent out an underground space, I said ‘please just let me’. They said they were for people who bought the apartments,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of empty land where we could park, a lot of space – but there’s restrictions in place.”<\/p>\n

The mum, who had been bidding for two years for a property with the council, knew there was no parking at the property when she signed the tenancy agreement.<\/p>\n

But she said she was unaware there were no usable spaces within a 15-minute walking distance.<\/p>\n

“I was told ‘if you don’t take this offer, we’re going to put you in band D’; it’s really difficult to get housing. I had no choice,” she explained.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the bedrooms inside the property -Credit:Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live<\/p>\n

“Now if you even park one minute over, I’ll get a fine. I just want someone to take us seriously.”<\/p>\n

What Birmingham City Council<\/a> said <\/b><\/p>\n

The development was originally built with a “reduced number of car parking spaces” because of the area’s “good connectivity” and “excellent access to public transport.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: \u201cThe Perry Barr development was designed and built with a reduced number of car parking spaces because of the good connectivity within the area and the excellent access to public transport.<\/p>\n

“For residents that live on the development, all rented properties were advertised without parking, with the message being reinforced at viewing, lettings and tenancy sign-up stage.<\/p>\n

“Additionally, the agreement signed by tenants stipulates that parking on site may result in a breach of their tenancy agreement.<\/p>\n

“The limited parking provision available on site is reserved for blue badge holders and L&G shared ownership properties.<\/p>\n

“For council tenants, there is a Choice Based Lettings System where residents make the decision to bid on advertised properties and are given information on relevant criteria such as parking when they choose to bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that there are no designated parking spaces for each home on the development and the Council and L&G have been transparent about this with residents throughout.<\/p>\n

“To prevent parking misuse and maintain a car free site for safety and service access without obstruction an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system is now in operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Outside<\/p>\n

Outside the Perry Barr Village flats -Credit:Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live<\/p>\n

The council said it was “aware of reported issues” where streets were being “overused” to make up for the fact parking was not available on site.<\/p>\n

“A combined effort across highways, housing management and housing development is underway to identify potential sites that might alleviate this and provide an increased level of parking provision,” they added.<\/p>\n

“However, it is important to note there won\u2019t be designated parking spaces for each home because of specific planning conditions and because of the physical space on the development. The Council and L&G have been transparent about this with residents throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you been affected by this or a similar issue? We would like to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing stephanie.balloo@reachplc.com<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families have finally moved into the trouble-plagued \u00a3500 million Perry Barr flats scheme – to find they cannot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,984,76008,748,76007,76006,393,4884,15267,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-185495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-council","10":"tag-birmingham-city-university","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-council-tenants","13":"tag-double-yellow-lines","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-perry-barr","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114685563681255811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}