15 September - A CPZ designed by random number generator
Yesterday
was the first weekend since the introduction of the AW1 CPZ and it coincided
with an event at Lesnes Abbey. Every parking space was taken and it extended to the
footpath in places; right to the top of New Road where a pavement parker was ticketed.
I warned a Chinese couple that parking part way across the dropped kerb belonging to a lady who has far more
success with
Parking Enforcement than I do was a bad idea and they gratefully moved on.
I have tried to find out exactly why residents of Elstree Gardens are not
enthusiastic about the new CPZ whereas on the other side of Abbey Road they are.
The best quote I have is “Elstree/Kingswood is a sea of yellow lines with not
enough bays and without logic. A six hour restriction is too long when visitor permits are
only five. Albany Park is 11-1 and then 3-4 in the afternoon. It stops commuters
waiting until 13:01 which is a consideration with the working hours prevalent
post-Covid but still permits carers/traders etc. to visit and park for most of
the day while preventing commuter parking”.
Lack of logic is evident
right across the CPZ north of Abbey Road; is it the
same along Elstree Gardens? I took a short walk to have a look. Restrictions
there are not a mish-mash of inconsistent double lines as can be found in Priory
Gardens. Some turning circles fully lined, others not at all and a few, like my own, half and half.
In Elstree Gardens there is consistency but none of it is like the inconsistent
Priory Gardens. Elstree residents have single yellow lines where there are
dropped kerbs and marked parking bays where there are none. That is consistency
of a sort but not consistent with what may be found across Abbey Road.
Nowhere in Priory Gardens has single yellow lines or marked parking bays so
people living there who have bought a permit can park pretty much where they
like. In Elstree Gardens they cannot; not even across their own drive. It is
hard to see how the AW! CPZ was not designed by a lunatic.
Elstree Gardens even has a section which is open to anyone for a maximum stay of four hours and a designated Disabled Bay. Inconsistency rules the day.
There are many examples of incomplete lines of which two are shown above.
Abbey Road (below) remains a monument to Bexley Council’s vindictive nature. This
morning and early afternoon only six cars occupied the 26 spaces available. 20
motorists displaced to where they might cause inconvenience to nearby residents
instead of doing no one any harm. Demented.
Did the Cabinet Member have a clue what he was doing when he signed off this badly executed scheme?