Kenley off-licence owner films drivers breaking parking rules on Godstone Road
A KENLEY trader has resorted to filming cars flouting parking rules and putting their pictures on the internet – to shame the inaction of highways bosses.
Stricter measures were promised along Godstone Road after a meeting last year between Transport for London (TfL) and local traders, who are counting the cost of motorists being able to park for hours with little threat of a ticket.
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Jimmy Vigh owns Kenley off-licence Drinks Paradise
A fresh row over the issue has emerged after the owner of off-licence Drinks Paradise, Jimmy Vigh, caught 15 drivers on camera over two and a half days parking longer than the permitted one hour, without a warden in sight.
However, TfL says it has been enforcing the road since last summer, and that penalty charge notices are being issued.
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Mr Vigh, who posted his camera images online via photo site flickr, said: "They're in it together, Steve O'Connell and TfL. They promised us enforcement, but have they? No.
"There are tons of drivers still parking along there illegally.
"Christmas should be the busiest time of year for us, but instead we had a situation where nobody can stop because people are just parking for hours."
The shopkeeper, who has estimated losing around 30 per cent of business, added that his camera footage was filmed over 63 hours in the days leading up to Christmas.
Other shopkeepers expressed "hurt" at what they see as a lack of enforcement, after also recording a dip in trade.
Marilyn Poulter, who runs Westbourne Florists in the parade next to Kenley Co-op, said: "I feel hurt and let down. We are not asking for a great deal, just something that helps the flow of people coming and going, which is good for business.
"We have been made to feel really quite insignificant. 'Small businesses' is the in-word at the moment, but nobody wants to help us.
"We just feel that if this was affecting large multinationals something would be done about it."
Steve O'Connell, Kenley councillor and Greater London Assembly member for Croydon, said he wanted to see more wardens patrolling the parades and promised to further pressurise TfL to deliver it.
"If they don't, there will be hell to pay," he said.
A TfL spokesman said it would be incorrect to say no enforcement is taking place, and that patrols have been carried out by wardens leading to a number of parking tickets issued.
Comments
by Paul_M
Thursday, January 17 2013, 1:02PM
“Well done for reporting this story. The retailers here have learnt the hard way about how unrestricted parking is bad for business - very often, small shopkeepers are mislead into thinking that parking restrictions are bad for business when in fact the reason they are introduced is precisely to help them.
It is a bit like the old problem of "bed-blocking" in the NHS - when a patient who doesn't actually need to be in hospital stays too long because there are problems about where he or she should be alternatively and more appropriately treated or housed. That bed is no longer available for other patients.
Similar here - a car parked for several hours will probably bring no more trade to the local retailers than a car parked for about an hour. Restrict the time, and you could have 8 or more cars park there, bringing 8 times the business, over the opening hours of those shops.
Hence local authorities either impose time restrictions, or where parking is charged, escalating hourly rates for longer stays, to discourage long-term parking - often to the outrage of retailers who don't appreciate the logic of what is being done.”
by Krystal333
Thursday, January 17 2013, 10:38AM
“That would be because all the parking wardens seem to be in New Addington all the time enforcing the new meters which allow half hour only parking by the shops.”