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Fw: (5814): Parking in Coulsdon - History + Backgr
Topic Started: Jan 2 2009, 10:45 PM (520 Views)
Thurbon
Administrator
From: PJM Enterprises 071215
To: David Rothberg ; Elizabeth Radcliffe ; Graham Lomas ; Hilary Dunn ; John Speller ; Peter Babler ; Charles King ; CN Maureen Levy ; LBC Christine Samson ; LBC Christine Samson ; OCRA Sally Ward-Lee ; HADRA Mike Oastler ; CN Janet Stollery ; CN Elaine Atkins ; CN Teresa Tuck ; PY Clyde Malby
Cc: LBC Wally Ross-Gower ; CN John Gallagher ; Ken Trench ; Tarsem Flora ; Phil Reed
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 9:38 AM
Subject: 5815: (5814): Parking in Coulsdon - History + Background; Meeting Mon 5-1-09; (5808,5796,5783-1,5756)

Dear all,

I thought it would be helpful to set out the background history and the current situation of parking controls in Coulsdon.
Coulsdon's position is typical of the problems found in Purley and for town centres widely elsewhere across London, struggling to compete against the large supermarkets which offer ample free parking as part of their package.
However, Croydon is noteworthy as having one of the more restrictive and oppressive councils.
BACKGROUND
(1) Prior to 1994, there were yellow lines along most of Brighton Road north, and Chipstead Valley Road in the town centre.
Elsewhere there were some yellow lines near junctions, but otherwise there was free unrestricted parking everywhere.
(2) There was a sustained campaign from a few determined individuals from the narrow parts of Reddown Road and Fairdene Road near Coulsdon South station for restrictions to limit commuter parking for the station.
There was concern that parking on both sides of the road made it difficult for passing traffic and access to driveways.
For some years, the council refused to make changes.
(3) In 1994, councils were given power to take control over enforcement of parking on council roads from the police and traffic wardens, and to keep for themselves any revenue from penalties. The claim was to make parking polices responsive to local needs.
At the same time, the Red Route network was introduced, with most principal main roads across London coming under central control.
This meant the Brighton Road through Coulsdon, and short stretches of most side roads.
It was claimed, without any evidence, that there was a problem of lack of effective enforcement, and this was harming traffic movement and town centres.
In the event, we have seen harsh and often unfair enforcement doing real damage to town centres, while traffic movement has not improved,.
Instead, it has actually got worse despite no real increased in traffic volume, as council parking controls and traffic management policies have not been evidence based - other than to raise revenue.
(4) The Red Route was very unpopular in Coulsdon from its inception and this is still true today.
The Red Route brought new restrictions on where and how long parking was allowed, and was accompanied by much harsher enforcement.
However, permitted parking remained free, and TfL had no trouble with enforcement.
There was only very limited consultation on the detail of the layout.
(5) Croydon Council was one of the first to take the opportunity to take over parking enforcement.
They issued a leaflet entitled "So you want to park badly - FINE".
The council quickly identified a number of areas for CPZ's - Controlled Parking Zones.
In Coulsdon, there was the SE one hour resident only zone, the town centre Pay & Display zone, and the W free bay zone.
Although the parking problem was limited to the area immediately around Coulsdon South station, the SE zone was huge, and the other zones unnecessary.
Having decided to force through these zones, consultation was limited to the statutory 28 days for objections.
At that time, many people were sold on the benefits, and did not realise the problems until it was too late.
The principle of the SE zone was that most properties had offstreet parking, and so there would be just a very few bays for those who did not have their own parking.
Ever since, residents have been trying to get more bays, provision for visitors, and even some free bays, but the council has obstructed these requests, and instead of any relaxation, the zone has just been gradually extended southwards.
(6) Having got control, the council avidly set out to maximise penalty income with their mobile hit squads, originally working on foot and transported by van.
In recent years, they put their parking police on mopeds, so they could rush around issuing as many tickets as possible.
(7) After many complaints and campaigns against controlled parking, the council adopted a policy of having an informal consultation in any area where they proposed to introduce controlled parking.
They now seek to manouvre to avoid this commitment for Coulsdon.
(8) The council have since tried repeatedly to introduce new CPZ's, for example, in Old Coulsdon and in Purley, but in nearly every case they have been rejected by residents.
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WHAT NOW FOR THE TOWN CENTRE
Everyone, council officers and elected representatives, residents, businesses, visitors wants to see a successful thriving town centre in Coulsdon.
The debate is over what this means and how it is to be achieved.
Despite 7 years of "consultation", there has been very little actual debate, and the council has produced little analysis.
Instead we have had the Area Action Plan, and the Regeneration Strategy, and more recently the CTCIS.
These documents were heavily influenced by town planners and their prejudices as to how we should want to and shall live.
There was little economic analysis, and views of the community were downplayed and largely ignored.
In summery, it is unclear what the community actually wants for the town.
Meanwhile the council and TfL have produce a vision without any proper economic analysis, traffic analysis, parking analysis, or safety analysis.
There is no explanation of what regeneration means, nor whether or why it might be a good idea.
There is no reason to believe the present CTCIS proposals would achieve this, nor any reason to believe that the £3M to be spent would be good value, let alone best value.
PARKING
Following the opening of the Coulsdon Bypass two years ago, it took 4 months for obvious basic relaxations of the Red Route regime to be implemented.
The council was very keen to get control of the Brighton Road from TfL as quickly as possible.
This necessitated a new parking regime.
LBC David Wakeling wanted at that time to introduce Pay & Display parking with 15 minutes at zero charge.
I pointed out the need for consultation.
The council wanted to avoid the normal informal consultation and further statutory consultation.
They wanted to push through control, so they went for an experimental scheme.
This meant they could just do the scheme, and the "consultation" would be the first six months of it.
This scheme was introduced in June 2007.
Every response to the "consultation" to my knowledge was for keeping the free bays, more parking bays, more loading but not at the expense of parking, and less harsh enforcement.
Technically, there had to be a genuine experiment, but as council reports have made clear, this legal requirement was met in name only.
However, there was still a problem.
Charging for parking cannot come in under an experimental scheme, so the council went for the one hour free parking we have now.
As the maximum 18 months for an experimental scheme expired in December 2008, the scheme wax then made permanent.
PAY & DISPLAY
The council have advanced three arguments for replacing our one hour free parking with Pay & Display, with the promise of a zero charge for the first 30 minutes as an experiment, for now and with no assurance over future policy.
Note, the proposal is for Pay & Display for all parking. Calling it 30 minutes free is wilful disinformation by the council.
Note also, the council has made no attempt to show that introducing P&D would be beneficial to the town, its businesses, residents or visitors.
We have just the following "reasons".
(A) The parking regime in Coulsdon needs to be the same as elsewhere in the borough, and so we can't keep our free parking.
(B) It is hard to enforce free parking, so it is widely abused, and this is detrimental to the town.
(C) Introducing P&D will increase council revenue.

It has been shown that A is false, because several other centres in the borough have free parking.
No evidence has been produced in support of any of the three strands of B.
Furthermore Croydon Council manages to enforce free parking elsewhere and has not seen a need for P&D there. Norbury has had free parking for 20 years, and Crystal Palace had it introduced as part of their regeneration scheme several years ago. In neither case is the council proposing to take it away, so why in Coulsdon?
Lastly, both TfL and numerous neighbouring councils find no problem with enforcing their free parking.
Clearly introducing a new tax on parking might produce revenue for the council, both from P&D payments, and from new easy fines.
However, this tax money can only come out of the pockets of those who park, and it does not go to the shops and businesses.
Thus it can only be a way of taking money out of the town, with no payback.
A P&D system means an additional loss of dead time of typically 5%, and sometimes even 50%.
It is thus clear that the council's P&D proposals can only be damaging rather than beneficial to the town and its community.
NB: Some have argued we should reduce the maximum time allowed from one hour to 30 minutes.
The argument is that this would mean a greater turnover of spaces, and hence more town centre activity.
It might well mean more traffic movement, but there is no evidence and only supposition to support the view that more economic activity would result.

CAMPAIGN
To stop the P&D, it is necessary to demonstrate to our councillors that it is overwhelmingly not wanted, and that there will be adverse consequences if they force it through and impose it against our will.
There are local elections in 2010 and the LibDems have come out in support of free parking in their latest newsletter. This is the kind of issue which can energise voters, and the LibDems have had councillors before in CNE.
It is quite clear that no "honest broker" lobbying from NP reps will suffice.
Thus the campaign must feature firstly a survey and a petition now.
Then we need to prepare for mass objections if the council goes out to statutory notice.
Lastly, we need to lobby our councillors and TMCC with the results.
Note, contrary to what some councillors are suggesting, we are not seeking to run down or undermine our town - why would we?
Rather, we are campaigning to save our town, keep it a nice place with free parking, and save it from the curse of P&D and heavy handed parking enforcement.
None I have heard from, apart from the council, supports P&D.

Peter Morgan Coulsdon NP rep for Roads & Traffic
PJM, 0840, Fri 2-1-09
NB: I am not suggesting or advocating party political campaigning, but instead maximising the chance of getting the best for our town.
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