The West Midlands street that guarantees you'll have a parking problem

If you live on a street called Gladys Road in the West Midlands, you're bound to have experienced parking problems

There are many benefits to urban living and for a lot of people, it's an enjoyable way of life. Being close to amenities, nice restaurants, shops, train stations and enjoying a good public transport network are some of the benefits.

But like anywhere you live, there will be drawbacks too. Like many who live in big towns and cities, parking can be a common problem - particularly in areas without driveways or dedicated parking spaces.

Areas that can experience this issue are apartments blocks and flats where residents don't have their own car park. Or it can be terraced streets where homes don't have their own driveways and everyone has to cram onto the road.

READ MORE: Life on Birmingham's 'Bermuda triangle' street where cars 'lie abandoned and people disappear'

Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp, click the link to join

By coincidence, there are two streets in the West Midlands with the same name and with identical parking issues. There's a Gladys Road in Hay Mills, Birmingham, and a Gladys Road in Bearwood, Sandwell.

Each street is lined with terraced homes and almost all of them don't have dedicated driveways. As a result, residents struggle to find parking spaces.

In both streets, it has led to controversial methods where residents place their bins in the road seemingly to stop other motorists from parking in a space next to the curb. In May 2022, BirminghamLive reported how a resident in Glady Road, Bearwood, had resorted to using the measure.

She said her street often gets blocked up by parents and staff members at a nearby primary school. Speaking at the time, 43-year-old Helen Barrell, an author, said: "The road I live in is right by a primary school which doesn't have any parking for staff, so they all park on my road and other roads nearby.

"And at school dropping-off and picking-up time, parents all try to park in the road too. It's a nightmare for residents as there's just nowhere to park, and it worries me that this situation is played out all over the region and, in fact, the country."

Earlier this month, BirminghamLive visited Gladys Road in the Hay Mills area of Birmingham after concerns that cars had been left 'abandoned'. When we arrived, we found cars had been parked there for so long that they'd become covered in a layer of pollen, dust, leaves and bird poo.

We also found bins had been placed in the street to seemingly reserve spaces on the road. A number of residents reported that cars appeared overnight and could remain there for weeks, with suspicion they could have been dumped there by criminals.

Other residents claimed the seemingly 'abandoned' cars were just residents who hadn't moved them in a long time. Ward Cllr Zafar Iqbal said: "The cars are not abandoned.

"The problem around here is there are loads of cars, there are loads of people and the biggest issue is the parking. We have got the same issue on other roads. There's too many cars, every household has got three or four cars."