Nottinghamshire County Council has set out a series of updates to its residents’ parking scheme process ahead of a key meeting of the Place Select Committee on 8 December 2025.
The authority is responding to long-standing concerns about delays, unclear criteria and inconsistent communication with communities.
The progress report, presented to councillors as part of a scrutiny follow-up, details how each recommendation from a 2024 review has been acted upon, and how residents will see changes when applying for new schemes or changes to existing ones.
The report follows a year-long review commissioned in early 2024 after committee members raised questions about how requests were assessed, how long schemes took to implement and how well the process was explained to the public.
A paper presented on 18 September 2024 set out a series of problems frequently reported by communities, with councillors highlighting that although the formal policy is contained within the county’s Highway Network Management Plan, much of the information residents needed to understand in advance was not available in an accessible form online.
Residents’ parking schemes, which restrict on-street parking in defined areas to permit-holders, have long been a point of debate in parts of Nottinghamshire.
Communities often request them in streets close to stations, busy high streets, workplaces or new developments where parking pressure has increased over time.
Historically, residents have complained of slow turnaround times, uncertainty about what evidence was needed to trigger a formal assessment, and a lack of updates once the application process had begun. The County Council’s review aimed to address these issues systematically, with councillors pushing for greater transparency, faster processing and clearer communication.
The new progress report confirms that several changes have now been implemented. One of the key updates relates to clarity around the level of community support required to begin considering a new scheme or altering an existing one. The revised Highway Network Management Plan now provides more explicit criteria, setting out the extent of support officers expect to see before an application progresses beyond initial review, and equally what level of resident backing is needed if a community wants a scheme amended or removed.
This is significant because previous applicants often expressed frustration that they did not understand why their requests could not move forward.
A number of improvements have also been made to the Council’s website. The online guidance now sets out the full sequence of steps involved in designing and implementing a residents’ parking scheme, including the approximate timescales for each stage from initial request to installation. This iterative process, which includes informal engagement, design work, statutory consultation and decision-making, is now explained so that residents can better anticipate the length of time required and understand why competing needs in an area must be balanced carefully.
A further update affects transparency during the application period. While the Council has not yet introduced an automated web-based system for tracking the status of a live request, the report confirms that highway scheme designers are now committed to sending personal email updates at each milestone, something communities have been asking for for several years. Although this falls short of an online public tracker, councillors view the commitment to regular updates as a meaningful step forward in terms of communication and accountability.
Another change relates to petitions, which have historically been used by residents to demonstrate local support. The updated guidance now clarifies that while petitions can indicate a level of interest, they cannot replace the statutory consultation process required by law. Officers must often consult with a wider area because new restrictions can displace parking pressure onto adjacent streets, and this can generate concerns or opposition beyond the petition boundary. The website now explains this more clearly to manage expectations and reduce misunderstandings about the role of petitions in the process .
The County Council has also addressed a persistent misconception that residents’ parking permit fees generate profit. The updated guidance now states plainly that the fees cover only the direct costs of creating, operating and enforcing the schemes, and do not provide income for other Council services. This reiteration follows years of comments from residents who wrongly believed that permit charges were being used to raise revenue rather than maintain the scheme itself
In terms of making the process faster, two operational changes have now been agreed and implemented. First, proposed schemes that pass an initial desk-based assessment will now be considered quarterly by the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, instead of twice per year. This doubles the frequency of decision-making windows and is expected to help reduce bottlenecks. Second, the formal statutory consultation period has been shortened from four weeks to the legal minimum of 21 days. While this will not change the overall length of the scheme design process, it does reduce one of the time-controlled stages and may help schemes move to implementation more quickly, particularly in areas where resident consensus already exists.
The report notes that these changes have been delivered within existing budgets, with no additional financial pressures arising from the updates. It also confirms that there are no legal implications and no links to the ongoing national conversation about local government reform. Councillors will be asked at the December committee meeting simply to note the progress made in delivering the recommendations adopted by Cabinet in November 2024.
