Parking 'nightmare' for first Perry Barr tenants

Housing project dogged by controversy under fresh attack

- STEPHANIE BALLOO News Reporter

FAMILIES have finally moved into the troubled £500 million Perry Barr flats scheme - only to find they cannot park nearby.

It is the latest issue to dog the controversial project, which is set to make an estimated £150 million loss and leave taxpayers with an £8 million-a-year bill for 40 years.

A hard-hitting report earlier this year savaged Birmingham City Council over the project, which replaced the former Birmingham City University campus with housing initially intended to have been the 2022 Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

That deadline came and went and the flat blocks stood empty until recent weeks, next to a still-unfinished ‘Box Park’-style development promised a part of the area’s Games-related regeneration.

Now the first residents have moved in, but some say they cannot park nearby.

The council is now scrambling to find suitable space.

The issue affects council tenants being housed by the authority, who do not have access to underground parking.

The council said the development was built with a “reduced number of car parking spaces” because of the area's “good connectivity” and “ample access to public transport”.

But a single mother living there said she had been hit with three £60 fines, saying she had “no choice” but to park on double yellow lines - including two occasions when her young daughter was unwell.