A PINEHURST family are outraged they are being forced to pay to protect their car from passing traffic by bringing it in off the road.

Michael Davies, 50, and wife Sharon, 53, of Whitworth Road, have seen a number of vehicles being damaged down their street as passing motorists have struggled to squeeze between cars parked in on-road bays.

And after appealing to the council to install a dropped kerb so they can bring their car off the road, they were suprised to learn they would have to fund the £2,000 installation themselves.

As council tenants, the Davies’ wonder why they should have to fork out to improve property that does not belong to them.

“We just want to be able to get our cars off the road,” said Michael.

“There are always vans or cars parked outside our house because all our neighbours have more than one car these days.

“It is an arterial road, so we have got emergency vehicles coming down there all the time.

“Our main concern is the damage to the vehicles coming down there. We have had two fire engines jammed down there and they have every right to just shunt cars out of the way if there is an emergency.

“Cars should not be left exposed out on the road like that. On the right hand side of the street is all private accommodation, and they installed dropped kerbs all along that side last year.”

Sharon said her daughter’s car had been badly damaged after a car ploughed into it while it was parked on the road.

She said: “My daughter’s car was written off two months ago when she came to visit. She had parked her car on the road and a young lad shunted the car right up onto the path.

“It is not only outside our house. There have been two accidents down the street recently and another car was badly damaged.

“It is consistently bad, and it is always in the mornings at about 8am during rush hour. Buses have to squeeze down there at those times, and then it picks up again in the afternoon peak.

“We first contacted the council four years ago, but that was for a different issue.

“When an officer came out we also mentioned the dropped kerbs.

“They said they could give us permission to have the dropped kerbs but we would have to pay £2,200 to have it installed.

“That was on top of the £172 needed for the planning, for which we have just filled out the forms.”

A Swindon Council spokesman said: “Our highways team have advised Mr Davies that he requires planning permission to construct his own parking space at his home because the access is from a classified main road.

“Work of this type also requires permission from the council as landlord of the property in addition to the relevant consent from highways.

“We will be in contact with Mr Davies to advise on the viability of any work before he submits a planning application.”