When your parking lot is not a happy one

As garages for city dwellers become the stuff of high-priced fantasies and the streets ever more crowded and insecure, what are the alternatives?

The natural sequel to the recent television programme about "road rage" is one on parking rage. The camera would follow a series of London residents as they drive round and round the block, scratch their bumpers trying to squeeze into too small a space and race for a free spot only to lose it to someone coming the other way. Finally, they would park on a yellow line, only to wake to the warden's first ticket of the following day.

Parking has become such a problem that some neighbourhoods are in danger of parking blight. Fulham is one of London's blackest spots. One woman lost a potential buyer for her Fulham flat when the buyer could not find anywhere to park in order to view it.

But inconvenience is only half the problem. The other is the growing fear of crime. It is quite normal for a car parked on the street to be attacked by vandals at least twice in one year. Increasingly, drivers fear that they, too, will be attacked - either for their money, their watch or even their mobile phone.

Brendan Roberts, of the central London agents Aylesford, says the value of a private parking space is increasing all the time. He had one City client looking for a garage for his pounds 65,000 Porsche which was "keyed" down both sides three days after he bought it. "New developments with secure underground parking are attracting higher and higher premiums," he says. "People are fanatical about security now." He has a single garage in Redcliffe Road, Kensington, under offer for pounds 40,000.

Linda Beaney, of Mayfair agents Beaney Pearce, says crime and parking problems are forcing some Londoners to give up their cars. "They have worked out that after insurance, depreciation and the potential threat of vandalism, it is cheaper to go about in taxis and rent a car if necessary for the weekend," she says.

A few people buy their way out of trouble - like the millionaire reported in the Independent last week, who paid pounds 100,000 for a garage in Knightsbridge. The going rate for a garage in central London is about pounds 40,000, with prices dropping to about pounds 20,000 in Notting Hill, West Hampstead and Fulham.

Other city centres designed for the horse and carriage suffer similar problems. In Bath, residents pay pounds 7,500-pounds 15,000 for a garage. But they rarely come on to the open market: even when owners move, they tend to rent them out for about pounds 15-pounds 20 a week, rather then sell. A resident's parking permit costs only pounds 50 a year, but there is no guarantee you will find a space.

One option for those with a sufficiently large front garden is to create their own parking space. But it remains controversial. While people may pay a lot for a private parking space, they are often unwilling to buy a family house with a tarmacked forecourt for a front garden.

It is, however, cheap. To tarmac an area large enough to take an average car would cost only a few hundred pounds. To build a standard brick garage would cost nearer pounds 10,000.

To put a parking space by your house, you need permission from the local highways authority who will check to see if it is safe. It is responsible for creating the "cross-over" - the slope that replaces the kerb - and will charge you a few hundred pounds for doing so. Most private parking spaces also require planning permission, which may be refused if the property is in a conservation area.

The other problem for many terrace dwellers is that water and electricity pipes are often buried in the ground you want to dig up. And finally, there are the neighbours to consider. Not only may they object to the appearance, they may also resent you commandeering a section of communal kerbside as an exit.

When Shirin Elahi started to dig up her front garden in Muswell Hill, north London, to put in a parking space, five neighbours called the council to check she had permission. Now that the work has been completed, they have been lining up to praise the way it has been done.

Mrs Elahi is an architect, so she had a head-start. Her key principles were to avoid the tunnel appearance of so many parking spaces by breaking up the straight lines; to use diverse, natural materials to blend in with the Edwardian architecture of the street, and to leave as much space as possible for planting.

Her parking space is built from stone sets and red bricks, with a narrow strip of topsoil providing room for flowers. The surface is mainly gravel. The steps to her front door complement this with York stone and Victorian replica tiles.

Mrs Elahi says the aesthetics were as important to her as the convenience of being able to park right by her house. "If you take away the front garden, it destroys the streetscape," she says. "If you do it badly, it's like putting in replacement windows; you may enhance the insulation, but you lose the period look."

The entire project, which included moving electricity and water pipes, cost about pounds 6,000. The agent who sold her the house estimates it has added pounds 10,000 to its value - not to mention eliminating any potential parking rage.