As everyone will be aware, Lambeth Parking and Enforcement Group decided to implement a Controlled Parking Zone in the Streatham Vale area. After the initial consultation, they made some minor changes to the scheme for a statutory consultation period ending towards the end of May. In March they issued a leaflet which explained the changes to the scheme, in which they stated as follows;
“The purpose of this leaflet is to let you know the outcome of the public engagement on proposals for healthy streets and parking controls in the Streatham Vale area carried out in December 2024 and January 2025.
The Council is consulting on introducing parking controls to reduce parking stress, prioritise parking spaces for local residents and businesses, remove commuter vehicles from local streets, and improve the local transport and kerbside environment in Streatham Vale. The findings were;
A wide range of factors were reviewed to consider how parking is affected now and may be affected in the future. It was considered that;
1/ The parking pressures in the area were significant and would worsen over time due to large residential developments being built.
2/ Parking displacement occurring from parking controls being introduced in neighbouring areas; less kerbside space for vehicles due to other sustainable measures taking up space.
3/ The wide practice of footway parking restricting footways for pedestrians.
4/ The high level of interest in access to on-street electric vehicle charging points. It was therefore decided that there was a case to take forward a scheme.
Feedback from the public engagement has been used to refine the proposals and a number of design changes have been identified and integrated into the final scheme. Minor amendments have been made to the scheme design including;
1/ The parking controls are proposed to operate from 12noon-2pm Monday to Friday.
2/ The provision of eight cycle hangars at various locations have been included.
3/ The provision of 14 electric vehicle charging points and associated electric vehicle only parking bays.
4/ Additional time limited free parking bays at various locations.
Detailed drawings of the scheme, permit prices and frequently asked questions can be found on the relevant scheme webpages at www.lambeth.gov.uk/sv-hspc. To view the history of the CPZ along with detailed plans of the revised proposals, please visit our website at www.lambeth.gov.uk/parking.”
The leaflet then also covered the issue of vehicle crossovers and dropped kerbs to enable you to park in your front garden. If you have a driveway in your front garden, it is illegal to not have a proper crossover as many people just create them without going through the required procedures. Lambeth’s leaflet offered people the opportunity to get a crossover and dropped kerb during the process of implementation provided that all approvals for them are in place before Lambeth published a formal decision on the outcome of the statutory consultation.
A few personal thoughts of my own to conclude this article and, as you know, I don’t mind being a little controversial at times.
I have always been opposed to CPZ’s personally but I get the reasons for them and I certainly can’t disagree factors 1, 2 and 4 above. Factor 3 on footway parking, however, flies totally in the face of Lambeth’s own policy going back decades because of the narrowness of most of the roads in the Vale. I probably still have SVPOA correspondence on this issue. If we are to have a CPZ, a two-hour period in the middle of the day is appropriate, as are electric vehicle charging points and time limited free parking bays. I’m not sure about cycle hangars – they can often cause obstructions to other road users.
As for vehicle crossovers and dropped kerbs, everyone has always been entitled to do that but the process included planning permission and costs of potentially having to get utilities to move their pipes etc. So if you have no manhole covers on the pavement near the front of your property these costs will be lower. Some 20+ years ago I heard of one resident in Glenister Park Road whose vehicle crossover and dropped kerb was going to cost some £10,000 because he had just about every utility that was going to need to do some work, but I also knew of others in the Vale who were only going to pay a few hundred pounds. But now there’s another potential cost to add to the fee. Lambeth’s leaflet added that “Any crossover applications that are not approved by (the time of the decision on the Statutory Consultation) may incur additional cost to amend the parking bay layout and Traffic Management Order.”
Simon Hooberman