Residents living near Coventry’s CBS Arena are calling for matchday parking restrictions to be extended after saying football traffic has left them struggling to get vehicles on and off their own drives.
People living just beyond the existing residents’ parking zones say their streets fill with cars as supporters search for spaces outside the controlled area.
One resident said the volume of parked vehicles could make it impossible to leave their drive, while others want Coventry City Council to bring their neighbourhoods into the Arena parking scheme.
The complaints, first reported by CoventryLive, expose the difficulty of drawing a boundary around a major stadium.
Restricting parking in one group of streets can protect those households. It can also push traffic into the first unrestricted roads beyond them.
How the CBS Arena parking zones work
Coventry already operates seven residents’ parking zones around the CBS Arena, identified by the letters AA to AG.
The restrictions do not operate every day. They come into force during designated matches and other major events at the stadium.
Only residents within the zones and their registered visitors are permitted to park on the controlled streets while the restrictions are active.
The council describes the system as a paperless virtual permit scheme. Residents register their address and vehicle number through the Coventry Permit Portal rather than displaying a permit in the windscreen.
Permits are free, last for three years and are linked to the vehicle’s registration. Residents can also obtain digital visitor vouchers.
The scheme covers dozens of roads surrounding the stadium, including Nunts Lane, Gospel Oak Road, Gateside Road, Old Church Road, Recreation Road and Navigation Way.
But eligibility can change within the same road.
The council’s street-by-street database shows that some roads are divided between different zones, while restrictions on others apply only to particular house numbers or one side of the street.
That creates a hard boundary between properties protected by event-day restrictions and neighbouring households that are not.
Residents outside the zone say they are absorbing the traffic
The latest complaints come from residents living outside that boundary.
When supporters cannot park inside the controlled zone, nearby unrestricted roads become the obvious alternative. Residents say the result is packed streets, obstructed access and cars left close to driveways.
They now want the council to redraw the boundary and extend the Arena scheme into their neighbourhoods.
The demand is likely to grow as the CBS Arena attracts larger crowds throughout the year.
Coventry City are back in the Premier League, while the club and stadium operator have announced more than £15 million of investment in the Arena.
The plans are intended to bring more football, concerts, exhibitions and other events to the venue.
That is good news for the stadium and the wider city. For people living on surrounding streets, however, more major events could also mean more pressure on residential parking.
What can residents do if a driveway is blocked?
Drivers should not park across a properly installed dropped kerb or leave a vehicle where it prevents somebody entering or leaving their drive.
Coventry City Council says its civil enforcement officers can take action where a vehicle obstructs a private dropped crossing.
The authority also offers access protection markings, sometimes known as H-bar markings, which highlight a dropped kerb and warn drivers to keep it clear.
The marking is advisory rather than a separate legal restriction. However, the council says action can still be taken against an obstructing vehicle whether or not an H-bar is present.
Parking problems can be reported directly to the council. Police can also act where a vehicle causes an obstruction or creates a danger despite there being no marked parking restriction.
That may help when an individual vehicle blocks a drive. It does not address the wider complaint that entire streets are being overwhelmed during matches.
Would extending the zone solve the problem?
Extending the Arena scheme would give more households protection from matchday parking.
It could also move the pressure further away from the stadium unless the expansion was accompanied by enough official parking, public transport and enforcement to reduce the number of supporters searching for spaces on residential roads.
Coventry City Council says requests for new or altered parking restrictions are normally considered through periodic area reviews rather than being introduced one road at a time.
Residents can ask for restrictions to be reviewed by contacting the council’s traffic management team.
The Daily Britain has approached Coventry City Council to ask whether it has received requests to extend the CBS Arena parking zones and whether a review of the current boundaries is planned.
We will update this article when a response is received.
For now, the dividing line remains clear. Residents inside the zones receive event-day protection. Those living immediately beyond them say they are being left with the traffic.
Do you live near the CBS Arena? Tell The Daily Britain or COVBible what parking is like on your street during matches and major events.
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