Residents banned from parking outside their own Milton Keynes homes for 18 months demand council tax refunds

Householders in Fenny Stratford’s Penn Road warned MK Council that a development of 39 new homes on their doorstep would cause huge traffic problems.

But the council granted planning permission – and now residents say their worst fears have been realised as construction vehicles have taken over their cul de sac.

Last month matters became even worse when the council served every household with a traffic order forbidding them from parking in their own street during working hours for the next 18 months.

The ban starts at 8am and continues to 4.30am. Most people have to leave for work or the school run after 8am, so it is “highly inconvenient”, say families. They have to leave their care in the nearest public car park – a 10 minute walk away.

And they cannot even park outside their homes on Saturday mornings, because the ban is in place between 8am and 1pm.

Now Rosemary Smith, who chairs Fenny Stratford Residents Association, has written to the council’s Corporate Director of Place, Duncan Sharkey, to demand a council tax reduction.

She wrote: “The residents of Penn Road, as you know, are having their lives turned upside down because of this development. It is our belief that the residents clearly do not rank very highly against the pecuniary gain of developers and MK Council.

“We are asking that for the 18 months that our lives will be totally disrupted, MK Council does the right thing for once and offers us residents a 25 per cent reduction in our council tax payments”

A council spokesman said: ““This application was considered and approved by the council’s Development Control Committee on 6 October last year, after discussion of all the issues and in conjunction with appropriate planning policy, with relevant conditions imposed and a Section 106 agreement required to secure local amenities for the area.”

He added: “The traffic regulation order is temporary to allow construction vehicles to access the site safely.”