Residents living around Swindon town centre have expressed frustration about parking permits in restricted areas being limited to two per household.

Those trying to park their cars in restricted zones, like Manchester Road, Commercial Road and Cambria Bridge Road, must pay for a permit to do so, but if there are more than two cars registered at the property, they will only be issued a permit for two vehicles.

This is leaving some residents with a choice between risking a fine, parking further away from home or paying for visitor permits, but the yearly allowance is capped at two lots of 25 all-day permits and two lots of 25 four-hour passes.

Karen, who has had to rely on visitor permits to park on Albion Street, said: “I’ve used all my visitor permits and can’t renew until next year. 

"No fine yet as I’ve got a few days left, then I have no idea what to do.”

Additionally, the signage indicating parking rules and times people are allowed to park can often be confusing and different for each area and many of the residential areas have double yellow lines, so parking spaces are reduced and sometimes hard to find, despite paying to park there.

One man who wished to remain anonymous said he lives in a house share with six working professionals – four of whom have cars and two of the permits are already in use.

Despite asking the council for advice, he has received more than five penalty charge notices and has even considered leaving his car at his parent’s house to avoid further penalties, but he needs it to get to work.

A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council highlighted their terms and conditions: “Occupants of new build, conversions of existing properties into multiple units, and premises that create multiple occupations may be denied parking and are not guaranteed the right to a permit.

“As a general rule, any new residential properties will only ‘inherit’ the permit allocation of the original building.

“For example, three small dwellings on the site of a single original dwelling will only be allocated two permits between them and dwellings built on a site that previously had no eligibility for parking permits, will have none allocated to them.

“Parking permits will not be issued to occupants of properties where a planning condition/obligation has been imposed preventing occupants of the properties from applying for and obtaining parking permits.”