A Bermondsey priest has slammed “cruel” Southwark Council for fining elderly parishioners who parked up for morning mass on Easter Sunday.
Father Alan of the Holy Trinity Dockside Church said around six worshipers, who believed parking restrictions were lifted on the bank holiday weekend, were slapped with £30 tickets.
He said parking wardens even turned up for seconds in the afternoon, but were foiled because the usual 6pm mass wasn’t scheduled.
A priest at the Catholic church for thirty years, he said: “This is absolutely scandalous! People presumed that, because it was a bank holiday weekend, they could park on the road and a whole load of them got fined!”
Peter Cooper, 69, a parishioner and retired taxi driver from the Dickens Estate, said: “It’s about money. They know the times of the masses and they must rub their hands together thinking ‘we’ll make a killing here’.
“In this day and age, with the cost of living, it’s hitting people where it hurts.”
The church off Jamaica Road falls within Controlled Parking Zone G (CPZ G) which covers much of Bermondsey and has some of the strictest restrictions in Southwark.
Unlike most other zones, residents’ permits are required from 8.30am to 11pm seven-days-a-week, with no exemption on Sundays or bank holidays.
Father Alan said visitors who come from outside the area can pay £5.05 per hour for temporary parking permits but this had been poorly publicised.
Elizabeth Abbey, 74, said: “Elderly people like us can’t always get online to pay online. It’s not fair on us!”
Father Alan said that, over the Easter holidays, which saw three religious gatherings in one week, some people shelled out up to £40 for parking.
Sister Assumpta, 89, who has been in the congregation for seventeen years, said the council had “no respect for families trying to worship their god” and that “this wouldn’t happen anywhere else”.
She said mothers were forced to walk long distances through the rain because they couldn’t park near the church.
The congregation is now urging Southwark Council to drop parking restrictions on Saturday and Sunday.
Parking in Bermondsey has been a long-standing bugbear for local residents ever since CPZ G parking restrictions were introduced.
The parking zone, which stretches from the river to the railway line running parallel with Jamaica Road, aims to give priority parking to local residents in what is a congested, central London ward.
But local residents often complain that permits are hard to get and too expensive.
Southwark Council has been approached for comment.