Action Line: Parking in Liberty Village
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England -- COMPLAINT:
I first want to say, we love it here at RAF Lakenheath. We arrived in 2009 and are here until 2014. It's by far our favorite duty station. I am emailing concerning the parking within Liberty Village housing. I currently live on Coningsby and I love my house. I have a four bedroom house, we have two cars and we were told by housing we have two spots, one in the garage and one right outside of the garage. Many people living on our street have two vehicles.
Most of us use our two intended spots but several neighbors (in various spots on Coningsby) have turned their garages into game rooms and "entertainment" rooms and then park in odd ways outside their houses making life extremely difficult for those of us who want to come and go within housing. I have been blocked in/out of my house numerous times. Trash trucks can't get down all the time, and heaven forbid an emergency vehicle need to get to my house, they would not be able to get through. I can't believe the inconsideration. We have guests at our house and we move our cars to other parking areas within housing so that our guests can use our spots at our house.
I do not understand why nothing is done. The 48th Mission Support Group commander has sent out letters. Housing has sent out letters and informs you when you move in about the parking situation. If you can't work around the parking issues, don't move into housing! We have complained to housing. They do what they can to police the parking during their business hours, however, the main problem lies when people know housing will not be around to ticket them. Security forces do absolutely nothing to fix the situation. Everyone points fingers at it being someone else's problem.
Tonight I had to drive on a neighbor's lawn, have my daughter watch to ensure I didn't hit the other vehicles all just to get to my street so I could go home. I should not have to destroy someone else's property to get to my home. It's not fair to my neighbor that people constantly have to drive on his lawn. We work hard to keep our yards up and show our pride for our housing.
All I ask is that someone hold people accountable for their actions when the rules that are clearly laid out are not followed.
RESPONSE:
I appreciate your concerns with the parking situation in the Liberty Village Housing Area and unfortunately, parking is an ongoing concern. The U.K.-specific rule on the number of authorized parking spaces per household is less than two cars. When the units were renovated, the rules had to be applied; this restricted neighborhood parking spaces to 1.5 per household; however, the majority of families have two cars. We have numbered the reserved parking spaces to ensure everyone has one dedicated spot and marked several with a "V" for visitors and residents on a first-come, first-served basis. As these areas are paid using fenced Military Family Housing funds, they should only be used by the MFH residents and/or their visitors.
In accordance with RAF Lakenheath Instruction (LAKI) 31-102/Motor Vehicle Traffic Supervision, paragraphs 4.13 thru 4.13.2., "the only authorized general parking spaces (excluding quarters driveways) on RAF Lakenheath are those marked with white/yellow lines or shaded brick/concrete and recognized as a parking space. Although U.K. traffic law permits limited parking in areas marked or not marked with double, dashed or diagonal yellow lines, these areas on RAF Lakenheath are considered non-designated and parking is prohibited. Vehicles are not authorized to park on grass, dirt or seeded areas unless directed to for special functions. These areas will be designated by sign or as directed by traffic/parking personnel."
I would like to appeal to everyone's good nature to be neighborly, courteous and considerate when deciding where to park their vehicles and we ask all of our housing residents to be considerate of each other when parking and be patient. Additionally, security forces never stopped issuing citations, but I will ask them to provide additional focus on housing parking and issue citations as appropriate. Furthermore, I will ask all first sergeants and commanders to re-emphasize and remind their personnel of the parking rules and regulations. If you identify any future infractions of our base traffic regulations, contact the security forces base defense operations center at 226-2333 or 01638 522 333.
Thank you again for sharing this issue. We are constantly looking for ways to make our base community better for our personnel and their families.
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