Rotherhithe residents are suffering déjà vu after launching their fourth battle against Rotherhithe parking restrictions in the last 26 years.
Local campaigner Andy Hind says Southwark Council’s plan to introduce a control parking zone (CPZ) – meaning residents must pay up to £300 to park – is a “money-making scheme”.
The 65-year-old remembers when the council “wrongly” said the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension in 1999 would escalate local parking pressure and thinks a CPZ is just as unnecessary today.
A council spokesperson reiterated the need to “reduce the dominance of cars” and said controlled parking could “bring many benefits for local people”.
Andy, whose paper petition against the plans has garnered roughly 65 signatures, said: “There’s a lot of free spaces… friends come round and they can park on the street and they don’t have to pay or whatever.
“Taking free parking spaces away and making people pay by other means is an infringement of the whole area.”
The proposed zone, stretching from the Rotherhithe Tunnel to Elephant Lane, is currently an island of free parking surrounded by a sea of CPZs.
Private roads and those on housing estates are excluded from the scheme including St Marys Estate, Henley Close, Adams Garden Estate, Western Place and Clarence Mews.
Southwark Council claims the “majority of roads” in the area have high parking pressure of 80 per cent or more.
By introducing a CPZ, it hopes to reduce parking pressure and encourage residents to walk and cycle and instead of driving.
But Andy insists “there’s a lot of free spaces” adding that when “friends come round and they can park on the street and they don’t have to pay or whatever”.
He said Southward Council had previously proposed parking permit schemes for the Rotherhithe Village area in 1998, 2003 and between 2016 and 2018.
But the council says there have been ‘changes over the years’ resulting in added parking pressures meaning a fourth CPZ proposal in 26 years.
The proposed Rotherhithe Village CPZ comes just weeks after Southwark Council unveiled its revised zones in Nunhead, Dulwich and Queens Road.
The latest consultation period for the CPZ ended on March 17. If Southwark Council decides to press ahead with the plans, there will be a statutory consultation in July 2024.
A council spokesperson said: “The council, through our Streets for People strategy, would like to reduce the dominance of cars on our roads and free them up for other uses such as play, walking and cycling.
“We want to make our streets safer, increase the number of trees on our streets, and improve air quality. These are all things residents have told us they want. “We have already made great strides towards this by constructing over 140 new pedestrian crossings over the last five years and installing over 700 cycling hangers across the borough.
“Controlled parking can bring many benefits for local people when introduced in the right places in the right way.”