| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Ealing Dean CPZ - Carew, bits of Elers / Lavington to go | |
| Posted by: | Phil Taylor | |
| Date/Time: | 16/11/09 12:52:00 |
| Melissa, I think that Mr Davis is being a bit disingenuous. He is mixing up a lot of issues. What I think he really wants is unrestricted free parking for himself and his staff to commute but he sees other people's commuting as being a problem. This is called having your cake and eating it. As someone who has commuted into London on public transport for 20 years I am not sure I see the equity in giving one group parking privileges above other groups. Why should someone commuting to a shop on Northfield Avenue say have different priority to someone wanting to park at Northfield station so that they can commute? Mr Davis needs to tell us what he thinks about the mechanisms that are in place to allow businesses to operate. For instance, we usually provide free Stop and Shop parking for customers of business in secondary shopping areas. Are there enough of these? Do they work? I frequently use South Ealing Road and Northfield Avenue shops and find I can park easily when I need to. Tradesmen can buy £1 an hour service vouchers to allow them to park in any CPZ. Clearly these need to be charged for at a rate that discourages abuse. The fee has not changed for four years. Obviously tradesmen, etc can always ask their customers for visitors' vouchers when they visit a customer - I always have a stock in hand for both my personal visitors and people doing work for me. Do these mechanisms work? Where I have my business in Hammersmith I have to pay £2.40 an hour at a Pay and Display machine to park in a CPZ. Finally, businesses can buy business parking permits. These cost £250 which is less than £1 a day for every day a shop is open. Hardly expensive I think. This rate has not changed for four years. Again, where I have my business in Hammersmith business permits are £751 for the first and £1,244 for the second and you cannot have any more after that. Is Ealing's charge reasonable? I suspect most people would agree that it is. The council does not rush to put in CPZs for the simple reason that they are not popular unless there is real parking pressure. They are expensive to put in and with the charges we levy they cost money to run. If people consistently ask for them and consultation results come back positively we will put them in but recent consultations in the Northfield have largely rejected expansion of CPZs. |