Parking has become a "nightmare" for people living in one part of Liverpool where some households have 'up to six cars' each.
Tensions are running high in the Dales area, off Smithdown Road, which is the most densely populated area in the city due to a high number of HMOs.
Roads in the area have become tightly packed with parked cars, making it hard for people to find a parking space anywhere near their homes.
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Some residents have reported cars being parked on pavements and on street corners, forcing schoolchildren, as well as people in wheelchairs and parents with prams, to walk in the middle of the road.
Siobhan, 53, who has lived in the area for the last 31 years, fears the sheer number of cars in the area may restrict the emergency services from getting access to houses.
She said the issue with parking is bad on her road that people have resorted to parking in the disabled spot she has for her son.
Siobhan told the ECHO: "The issue we've got is when you've got cars parked either side, if you've got a car coming up and down the road then nobody can get past. Then we have standoffs and arguments and road rage all the time. It's a nightmare.
"It's not just parking to be honest. They're terraced houses, they're not built for this amount of HMOs. It's not just parking it's rubbish, it's noise.
"I've considered moving out lots of times but I think - why should I? I've raised my family here. I've got really good neighbours.
"The relationship between students and permanent residents is at an all time low I would say, because I think people are absolutely fed up with it all; fed up with the noise, the parking situation and the rubbish."
Siobhan would like the council to impose a one way system in the Dales area to help with traffic flow but admits there isn't a simple solution to solve the parking problems.
According to the Highway Code, people are not allowed to use parking cones or wheelie bins to reserve a parking space outside their property.
However, Nicole Austin, who is a third year Media student at the University of Liverpool, said she has seen residents putting wheelie bins in the space outside their homes.
Nicole, 23, said: "The biggest thing that annoys me is, I sound like a right Karen, but people always reserve the car parking spaces. They literally put bins in the space.
"A couple of days ago everyone woke up and everyone's cars had been scratched.
"Our house get on with everyone. I've spoke to a few other people and it's the odd people - they write a bad name for everyone else."
Nicole said out of the six people she lives with, two of them have cars, herself included, which they use to get to and from work at weekends.
She said: "We work in hospitality. I can't get home Friday and Saturday without a car. If there was a bus 24 hours I would 100% get that. It's so expensive to get a taxi I can't afford that."
However, Nicole admits that not every student needs to bring their car with them to university, depending on the circumstances.
Jenny Curtis, 70, is another longstanding resident in the Dales area who fears the parking situation has gotten worse.
Jenny said: "Since covid, I think it's gone 10 times worse because the students are just all coming with their little cars and they're not mindful that there are residents in the road that need to be parked outside their house or close to their house when they've got families.
"The house next to me has got seven students they actually haven't got any cars. The six opposite have six cars but they're medical students obviously working different shifts, so that's understandable.
"It's other students who park their cars and don't use them for a week. If you had a one way system down these roads it would sort of stop people using it as a shortcut which is what people do.
"The worst road for it is Garmoyle Road, people are always using it as a shortcut. You've got children going to Greenbank School or St Clare's school or even coming home from Calderstones - they've having to walk in the road because there's cars actually parked on the corner of the pavements, and if you've got a buggy or a wheelchair you've got no chance."
Alex, 25, studies medicine at the University of Liverpool and lives in a five-bed HMO, with four of the occupants having cars.
As medical students, Alex said they can be on placement in hospitals across Merseyside and at GP surgeries which are often hard to get to by public transport.
Alex told the ECHO: "I think more students than last year have cars.
"We have to have cars for placement - for us it's a necessity, but I can see why people would be annoyed with it, say if [others] don't necessarily have to have a car."
What action Liverpool City Council is taking
Liverpool City Council told the ECHO it is set to carry out a review of the area to determine whether a number of options, including a one-way system, would be appropriate.
A council spokesperson said: "As part of the review we would also look to see whether waiting restrictions are required at strategic locations (such as around junctions) to prevent vehicles from parking in unsafe/obstructive locations, and to allow turning manoeuvres at junctions."
The council was unable to confirm a timescale as to when this review will be carried out.
One solution which was suggested to the ECHO by some residents in the area was the introduction of parking permits.
However, all residents who may be registered as living within a permit parking scheme and have a vehicle registered at their address would qualify for a permit in any case of whether they live in a HMO or not.
Greenbank Councillor James Roberts told the ECHO "the sheer concentration of HMOs" in the area is contributing to the issue with parking, which the council has already taken steps to crack down on with the introduction of Article 4.
Under Article 4, landlords looking to convert homes into HMOs of five bedrooms or less must apply for council permission to do so.
However, with so many homes having been converted into HMOs before Article 4 came into force, a large student population remains in the area.
Cllr Roberts said a "multi-faceted approach" is needed to address the issues with parking and traffic flow in the Dales area, which includes the council speaking to universities in the city to encourage students to make use of public transport and cycling.
He also plans to hold a meeting with the Dales Resident Group and council highways officers in the coming months to hear their views on what should be done to tackle this.
Cllr Roberts said: "These are old streets, Victorian streets that were never designed for this many personal, private motor vehicles. Part of the solution is reducing the total number of vehicles that occupy those streets.
"Landlords in this area earn massive profits kitting out houses to cater to as many students as possible so they can rake in profits.
"I'm very sympathetic towards how students are treated by landlords in this area. At the same time, it's a mixed community - we've got older people, we've got younger people, families, children, everyone's got to get along.
"I think it works great as a mixed community. The problem is when these things start to happen you've got to identify what the real problems are and try and make sure you bring the community together rather than have people divided."
