Portsmouth ranked one of UK's worst parking blackspots

Latest research by esure car insurance shows that on average there’s only 7.20 metres of space per car to park in the city – the seventh worst in the UK.

The tightest area is Kensington and Chelsea – where drivers have only 5.91m of space per car.

Hartlepool topped a table of the best places to park – where residents have 11.8m of room per vehicle.

The places where residents have to wait the longest for a parking permit are in Canterbury – 3,466 days – and in areas controlled by Mid Devon District Council, at 2,867 days.

The research shows that since 2011, car ownership has grown at twice the rate of residential parking spaces, with now more than two million extra cars.

More than one in 10 drivers now find parking on their street difficult – a figure that rises to almost one in five – 19 per cent – among drivers living in London and to one in six – 18 per cent – for those living in the south east.

That’s because the average amount of space per car in residential areas has shrunk by 3.4 per cent in just five years – and by seven per cent over the past decade.

Tory traffic official, Councillor Ken Ellcome, said: ‘It’s another slant on the debate that’s been going on for years.

‘Most of Portsmouth is on an island and within that we are constrained as to what space is available.

‘It’s not any great surprise that parking is bad. There are no easy solutions to it.’