Controlled Parking Zone proposed for Brockley

The threatened Controlled Parking Zone consultation for the area surrounding Brockley Station has arrived. So it's time to discuss it in earnest. The proposed zone [above] is similar to the one mocked up by BCer Mike, last month. The Council says:

A CPZ is an area in which all on-street parking is restricted and so people wishing to park within this area will need to have a permit to do so. Parking bays are painted on the road to show where it is safe to park and all other kerb lengths are marked with yellow lines. 

This helps keep the street safe for both drivers and other road users allowing priority for parking to be given to disabled people, residents and their visitors and local businesses.

I live just inside the proposed zone, own a car and hate having to pay administrative charges - both the money and the faff involved.

The road I live on is busy, but I've never had to park more than 20 yards from my house, which is fine. Until two years ago, I lived on Geoffrey Road, another road inside the zone and close to Brockley Station, and the situation was the same. 

Beyond a few streets very close to the station, there is no real problem with parking in Brockley. If you live on those streets, it's part of the deal - a drawback offset by the fact that public transport and amenities are on your doorstep. 

The East London Line arrived years ago and made little difference to the parking situation. Brockley's housing density is relatively unchanged and per capita car ownership is falling across London. There's no reason to imagine that car parking will get markedly harder in the near future.

Meanwhile, Brockley Central has for years had to report the unfolding chaos that the introduction of a CPZ in Ladywell created. Whatever problems the CPZ purports to solve, we can be fairly confident it will create a whole new set just outside the zone. 

I grew up in Greenwich, miles from the Dome but nonetheless close enough to be caught in the CPZ introduced in 1999, in anticipation of a vast influx of drivers that never came. The great exhibition passed but the CPZ remains to this day for no good reason.

So a CPZ would be unnecessary and expensive for car owners without being cash-generative for the Council (or at least, they're an illegal and inefficient way for Council's to make money). It won't guarantee you a parking spot, but it will guarantee a fresh batch of problems for those not in it. And once in place, it will never, ever get removed, however problematic it proves to be.

So I'll be voting no. You can complete the survey here and debate it below.