"Owain" wrote in message
...
AstraVanMan wrote:
I live in a block in S London, in pretty much exactly the same situation
as the OP. I am also a director of the management company, and we have
discussed a barrier or remote gates etc. When we looked at automatic
gates, we had to also consider access for
legitimate visitors such as the milkman, postman, delivery drivers etc,
as
well as doctors and emergency vehicles, and legitimate residents'
visitors.

If there is sufficient space to separate incoming and outgoing traffic (ie
not a single-track driveway) the emergency vehicle access can often be
sorted by having sprung flaps in the incoming lane, which can be driven
over by vehicles entering the property, but cannot be driven over easily
in the 'wrong' direction, and having the exit controlled by barrier.

Sorry, not quite what I meant by "consider access".

I meant that the milkman, UPS man, Fireman Sam, Miss Spinster's dry-cleaning
and Dr Pox will drive up to the barrier and not be able to get in, simply
because it's there and closed.

Now the milkman could have his own code to get in, like the residents.
Probably the firemen could as well, or their own special over-ride key (I'm
sure there are arrangements for this). But that's no good for the other,
occasional yet legitimate visitors.

So we would have to wire up an entryphone system at huge expense so Miss
Spinster could let the dry-cleaning van in remotely. But Miss Spinster
doesn't have a car herself, so how much should she contribute to the
installation and maintenance of this whole automatic gate thing? She isn'y
even remotely inconvenienced by non-residents parking in the car park, but
she is now inconvenienced because she has to be in every time her
dry-cleaning is delivered.