Forum Topic

We all use cars for all sorts of things, and I'm sure we all use them at the drop of a hat for those silly short journeys that we ought not to.It's a matter for ones own conscience, whether the envirionment, socially and atmospherically means anything to you or whether the exercise would be of benefit over why none of us ever seem to have time or make our own quality of life and so on.I use the car for short trips but increasingly I do feel guilty. Anthony is right in many respects, there's  a good chioce of buses up to Ealing Boston Manor and Northfields and it's cheap in relation to running a car over a short journey which uses the most fuel and wear on a cold engine.But on the other hand it is something we all use as a commodity like toilet paper...when we could use newspaper!!.But that is away from the problem. Anthony is right that the handful of streets outside of the consultation did feel as though they were being railroaded and that the area as a whole has to be looked at and no-one was going to say yes to any scheme without knowing the actual working and cost.Memories have not dimmed on the 2002 proposal which was nuts and costly.It does seem to be big vans in little streets. I would add that this is where planning and the authorities have to wake up. It is no good developers building homes and all manner of other developments without taking into account the detrious of modern urban life.Glitzy plazas, swanky shops, chic cafes, They are all served by transport and by tradespeople. But space is never provided to accomodate them properly.Residential areas which are cramped by age or poor design need to have to hand open spaces for both people and for their baggage.Baggage is vans and cars and trailers etc all necessary for a mix of people.We cannot all be 9-5 office worker with a bag containing a Muller Lite and an apple. Nor can we exclude someone because the run 3 vans. But 3 vans in a small terraced street atributed to one individual is unfair on others.When all the brownfeild spaces get cleared I do hope the council take a hard line with developers and ensure that spaces are set aside to allow local residents to park vans and assets in safety at a very modest cost. ie the same as a parking permit. parking  methods have benefitted of late from security technology and need not cost much. To include a safety valve in every nieghbourhood would be of enormous long term benefit.Building over every bit of space will simply damage society and we are already seeing it.

Michael Brandt ● 5488d

We all use cars for all sorts of things, and I'm sure we all use them at the drop of a hat for those silly short journeys that we ought not to.It's a matter for ones own conscience, whether the envirionment, socially and atmospherically means anything to you or whether the exercise would be of benefit over why none of us ever seem to have time or make our own quality of life and so on.I use the car for short trips but increasingly I do feel guilty. Anthony is right in many respects, there's  a good chioce of buses up to Ealing Boston Manor and Northfields and it's cheap in relation to running a car over a short journey which uses the most fuel and wear on a cold engine.But on the other hand it is something we all use as a commodity like toilet paper...when we could use newspaper!!.But that is away from the problem. Anthony is right that the handful of streets outside of the consultation did feel as though they were being railroaded and that the area as a whole has to be looked at and no-one was going to say yes to any scheme without knowing the actual working and cost.Memories have not dimmed on the 2002 proposal which was nuts and costly.It does seem to be big vans in little streets. I would add that this is where planning and the authorities have to wake up. It is no good developers building homes and all manner of other developments without taking into account the detrious of modern urban life.Glitzy plazas, swanky shops, chic cafes, They are all served by transport and by tradespeople. But space is never provided to accomodate them properly.Residential areas which are cramped by age or poor design need to have to hand open spaces for both people and for their baggage.Baggage is vans and cars and trailers etc all necessary for a mix of people.We cannot all be 9-5 office worker with a bag containing a Muller Lite and an apple. Nor can we exclude someone because the run 3 vans. But 3 vans in a small terraced street atributed to one individual is unfair on others.When all the brownfeild spaces get cleared I do hope the council take a hard line with developers and ensure that spaces are set aside to allow local residents to park vans and assets in safety at a very modest cost. ie the same as a parking permit. parking  methods have benefitted of late from security technology and need not cost much. To include a safety valve in every nieghbourhood would be of enormous long term benefit.Building over every bit of space will simply damage society and we are already seeing it.

Michael Brandt ● 5488d

You would think you were the only people who have to collect children at a moments notice. Don't you think many others have to do the same?Our small child is disabled but we use the buses when we need help from her grandparents in the same area and vice versa. It is often as quick as the car, it is never really a problem for a 75yr or  5 yr old. When it is we'll use a car.  We both work long hours too, not by choice either. But we try only to use a car for distances or carrying goods. I don't really care what people use their cars for, but the excuses justifying use are as though no-one else has the same problems. But over short distances and in a district with good bus services and safe urban streets? As it stood, the CPZ did not involve the whole block from Hamilton to the High street and objections came from those streets outside of the consultation who quite rightly knew that they would be the unfair casualties of the nimbyism of streets near the station. The general tone is no to a CPZ but an even bigger no to getting another streets problem dumped on them. Cars have been around for a long time and no-one buys a house near a station without knowing that you will endure commuter traffic, just like those who move in around a football ground and then complain about the noise and crowds. However, if you live somewhere and suddenly a football ground is foisted upon you or a parking problem is transferred to your street then you would have cause to complain.As for vans, well in Ealing where I grew up long before CPZs the council banned residents who parked fleets of vans in their and surrounding streets.It was a result of a company called Phone a Van who parked a fleet of 3 vehicles in a small street but a year later had 23 vehicles filling 5 streetsThe restriction was over wheelbase or axle weight and a maximum of two vehicles on the proviso that the drivers lived at the address registered.The maximum size was a standard transit, and small SWB low height box vans. Ironically taxation classes meant long wheelbase vans were only used by large operators and were seldom used by owner residents.I wonder how you, me or anyone else would feel if you had a resident with a fleet of 3 or 4 LWB vans as your next door neighbour? That's 10 car parking spaces.Brook Road this afternoon has 4 long wheelbase Mercedes- vans 2 Luton vans, 3 standard transits, a Transit low loader and a flatbed truck. Not all will be there tonight but most will. No-one seems to know who owns them, if it were me I would park them in the next road to avoid any conflict with immediate neighbours - which is what must be happening.

Anthony Waller ● 5488d

Bernadette, I have never been a fan of CPZs but over the last few months something has happened here and the parking has very quickly got much worse.It is the influx of vans that seem to cause the loss of so many spaces.although it is the amount of light they block out when so close to small terraces houses that annoys me personally.I even have friends who have been parking here for the airport for a few years. 3 buses and a cheap cab ride. (I wish they never came to dinner now!)There's also been a spate of reckless driving with many vehicles getting damaged by vehicles driving too fast and some astonishingly poor driving.The 20 mph zone is never enforced.It's not even parking during the day that is a pain. It is vehicles not native to the street that are left for days, even weeks that is a problem new here.It was just a few, now there are a lot.I have not been able to get my car near my home - not even in the same street for the last 12 days. I can't wash it, load it or unload it without several trips back and forth and it is a right pain.Has it changed my views on a CPZ? It is starting to.But the CPZ proposed as Mike said is not really going to help.It's basic design would lose more spaces than vehicles entitled to a permit.As for Northfields all of the area from Boston Manor to South Ealing are in 3 different CPZs. The remaining parts of Little Ealing and Northfields will have them added in due course as the ripple factor has now affected them up to a mile from the stations.So where exactly do you park that is near the tube and still free all day? my parents live nr Northfields stn and I can't find anywhere within a 10 min walk.

Anthony Waller ● 5488d

Bernadette - one or two points:1) Yes, I'm correct in what I say. I was at the meeting. I wrote the letters to everyone concerned. I have not received a satisfactory explanation. Which part of this do you think might be incorrect?2) The previous thread on this subject was hardly representative of the views of the entire Griffin Park area, populated, as it was by more more than 15 or 20 correspondents3) In Hamilton road (which the councillors acknowledged is the road most affected by this problem) I was in a majority of residents (those who expressed an opinion) in favour of a CPZ4) To be clear, the consultation asked 'are you in favour of your road being included in a CPZ' and not 'are you in favour of a CPZ for the whole area'5) The levels of response across the Griffin Park area as a whole were low. You have to assume that - as they were given two chances at it - many people simply didn't care one way or the other and, as we know, 'silence gives consent'6) Several of the councillors at the meeting (and yes, this also is correct) were newly-elected, most are councilors from other wards - they weren't representing the views of the residents because they didn't have a clue what those views were7) I wonder if the people in Northfields where you park on a 'daily basis' (can you not take the bus?) see you in the same light as I do the GSK workers carelessly speeding down Hamilton Road in the morning to grab a space that's just become free, as some hapless parent/resident leaves their house for 20 minutes to take the kids to school?All the best

Jeremy Probert ● 5488d