Parking spaces becoming larger to fit the modern car

Cars are getting too big for Britain's parking bays - amid a growing number of accidents and calls for larger parking spaces.

According to a new study, the average parking space is 4.8m long and 2.4m wide, but popular larger vehicles such as the Audi Q7 and the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class measure in at more than 5m long and just under 2m wide.

Even many smaller cars are larger than they used to be, with the latest Vauxhall Corsa now 16% bigger than it was 15 years ago, for example.

Scott Hamilton-Cooper, director of operations at Accident Exchange, which produced the study, said: "Drivers are having to squeeze increasingly large cars into spaces that generally haven't got any larger for a very long time.

"This could be contributing to the rise in car parking incidents we are seeing."

Mr Hamilton-Cooper noted that the SUVs have become very popular, outselling smaller hatchbacks, while older smaller cars are being taken off the streets.

Car-parking accidents have increased by an estimated 35% since 2014, now accounting for more than 30% of all accidents, the company said.

This means that there are around 1,859 car parking accidents every day.

They calculated that these result in an average repair bill of £2,050, meaning that parking prangs are costing Britons around £1.4bn a year.

National Car Parks (NCP), the largest private car park operator in Britain, has announced it is making many of its spaces larger.

The move has stirred anger among drivers of smaller vehicles, who resent the reduction in the number of spaces to accommodate drivers of larger cars.

An NCP spokeswoman told The Times: "We are moving towards making the bays wider as we recognise that vehicles are growing in size, especially SUVs."

She admitted that there was an "extremely fine balance" between demand for bigger spaces and the number of spaces available, particularly in very busy car parks, such as those at railway stations.