{"id":948826,"date":"2026-05-09T18:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948826\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:25:19","slug":"you-have-to-walk-on-the-road-because-of-all-the-cars-it-feels-like-were-hemmed-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948826\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You have to walk on the road because of all the cars, it feels like we’re hemmed in’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some residents have had enough.\"Many<\/p>\n

Many roads in Levenshulme are full of parked cars<\/p>\n

On Mayford Road in Levenshulme, much of the pavement is covered by cars.<\/p>\n

Rows of terraced houses on the road sit in front of narrow residential streets, with neighbours often struggling to find a space to park.<\/p>\n

Fed up and feeling \u2018hemmed in\u2019, some residents in the area are calling for change.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Parking is a very big issue, if you come home at night at 10 or 11pm, you will really struggle,\u201d said Amir Sayed, who lives in the area.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old works in a warehouse in Salford<\/a>. Public transport can get him to work in an hour and 15 minutes one way, but driving is much faster and takes half the time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem many people living in the suburbs of Levenshulme<\/a> and Longsight<\/a> are facing.<\/p>\n

Amir said: \u201cWe see people first thing in the morning trying to get a space on these roads, it’s not just people who live here, they are coming from other areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has too many cars so no one can find a spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amir<\/p>\n

Amir drives to work because public transport would take much longer(Image: Declan Carey \/ Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n

On some occasions, Amir has not been able to find a spot to park near home at all, and has had to leave his car on a bend in the road which is often the only space available.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s been fined for this \u2018three or four times\u2019, but said he\u2019s been left with no choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I ask them what am I supposed to do?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne way to solve it would be to build a huge multi-storey car park for everyone. Improving public transport would be better, but it can take a long time to get around on the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cManchester is very crowded now and this issue will get worse in future as the population grows and people have more cars, it’s a very big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Active travel schemes have been brought in across Greater Manchester in recent years to try and improve things.<\/p>\n

It has led to a major revamp at Deansgate<\/a>, new cycle lanes in central Salford<\/a>, and other schemes taking place in boroughs all over the region.<\/p>\n

But for many in Levenshulme and Longsight, a car remains the quickest way to get around.<\/p>\n

Tom Saunders, 61, also lives near Mayford Road.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s lived in the area for more than 20 years and said the number of cars on the streets keeps growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem got much worse during Covid when many people stopped using public transport and switched to using a car,\u201d he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buses can take a long time to use compared to driving, it gets stuck in traffic. Sometimes it’s faster to walk to town than take the bus from Stockport<\/a> Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Saunders said the streets were not designed to handle so many cars(Image: Declan Carey \/ Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n

A lack of space on the roads for all the cars is also causing tensions within the community, Tom explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighbours are getting angry with each other over spaces. The houses around here were built in the 1900s, they were not built for a time when people had lots of cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to walk in the middle of the road because you just can’t get past the cars sometimes which are parked on the pavement. It feels like we’re hemmed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The streets around Mayford Road in Levenshulme are just off the ever-busy Stockport Road, route of the 192 bus and a buzzing high street.<\/p>\n

But even on a Thursday morning the traffic is heaving, and many of the parking spots on the main road are taken, pushing shoppers onto residential streets.<\/p>\n

Further up the road, on Pennington Street, some locals are coming up with ways to tackle the parking issues themselves.<\/p>\n

Angela, aged 50, has lived on the street for decades.<\/p>\n

She explained that her son has started asking non-resident cars parking on the road to move on.<\/p>\n

“Parking is getting busier than it used to be,\u201d she added. \u201cIf people park here my son asks them politely how long they’re going to be and if they can move their car.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are people who live here and own two or three cars each, so that’s part of it too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we get a lot of people coming and going on this street, with others who have stayed a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of cars are parked on the pavements around the area and there are people who struggle to get past, they park there to go to local businesses or shops.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s having a real impact too, as Angela says her daughter recently visited and couldn\u2019t find a place to park nearby.<\/p>\n

Anne, 75, also from Pennington Street, added: \u201cThey are all cars that live here, so what can you do? But you get people parking on the pavement and you can’t get past, but it’s bad everywhere now, it’s not just this street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester\u2019s growing economy is bringing more people to live and work in the area.<\/p>\n

But some residents living in Levenshulme and Longsight feel the issue of traffic and parking are only getting worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some residents have had enough. Many roads in Levenshulme are full of parked cars On Mayford Road in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,8826,19420,2465,16,15],"class_list":["post-948826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-levenshulme","tag-longsight","tag-manchester","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116546026331079179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948826","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=948826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}