Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ladywell Parking Consultation Results

Over the summer, a large number of households in Ladywell ward were consulted on whether residents wanted a controlled parking zone. Parking zones are something of a Marmite issue - residents either love them or hate them. The issue has been hotly debated both in the comments on this blog, and on the Ladywell Society e-mail group.

The results have now been collated and analysed by the Council's Highways team and I've just been sent a copy. As predicted, the results showed high levels of support from the areas closest to Lewisham Station, Ladywell Station and Lewisham Hospital, but support for the proposal was less in the roads further away. Highways hope to send a letter round to residents within the next week or so summarising the results and they propose going ahead with a CPZ (subject to the results of the Statutory Consultation) just in the area that had a high level of support.

The response rate was pretty good compared to other CPZ surveys in the borough, with 620 respondents. In the area where support for a CPZ was high, 298 questionnaires were returned, which represents a 27% response rate. Out of these 298 respondents 199 (67%) were in favour and 99 (33%) were against the proposed CPZ.

In a nutshell, Algernon Road, Marsala Road, Malyons Road, Gillian Street and Ellerdale Street were clearly in favour, while Embleton, Ermine, Algiers, Veda, Brookbank and all the siblings off Ladywell Road (Francemary, Arthurdon, Phoebeth) were clearly against. More marginal areas included Vicar's Hill, Chudleigh Road and Adelaide Avenue.

Two tables follow - the first shows the results overall by street, the second shows the results in the area now proposed to be included in a CPZ, statutory consultation pending. Apologies if these aren't very easy to read - I've tried and failed to work out how to paste tables in to this blog. A clearer map of the proposed zone will be on the back of the letter circulated to residents next week.

Ladywell area CPZ

Road Yes No % for % against
Adelaide Avenue 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Algernon Road 49, 33, 59.8% 40.2%
Algiers Road 8, 27, 22.9% 77.1%
Arthurdon Road 3, 23, 11.5% 88.5%
Brookbank Road 6, 11, 35.3% 64.7%
Chudleigh Road 12, 31, 27.9% 72.1%
Eastern Road 1, 6, 14.3% 85.7%
Ellerdale Street 17, 12, 58.6% 41.4%
Embleton Road 15, 39, 27.8% 72.2%
Ermine road 4, 42, 8.7% 91.3%
Francemary Road 1, 26, 3.7% 96.3%
Gillian Street 9, 1, 90.0% 10.0%
Ladywell Road 7, 21, 25.0% 75.0%
Malyons Court* 1, 0, 100.0% 0.0%
Malyons Road 56, 15, 78.9% 21.1%
Malyons Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Marsala Road 43, 11, 79.6% 20.4%
Peppermead Square 1, 3, 25.0% 75.0%
Phoebeth Road 1, 10, 9.1% 90.9%
Railway Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Slagrove Road 3, 6, 33.3% 66.7%
Veda Road 3, 21, 12.5% 87.5%
Vicars Hill 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Total 260, 360, 41.9% 58.1%
*I'm assuming this means Keswick Court.

Breakdown of results in area of proposed CPZ
Road Yes No % for % against
Algernon Road 49, 33, 59.8% 40.2%
Chudleigh Road 11, 10, 52.4% 47.6%
Ellerdale Street 13, 1, 92.9% 7.1%
Gillian Street 9, 1, 90.0% 10.0%
Ladywell Road 2, 7, 22.2% 77.8%
Malyons Court 1, 0, 100.0% 0.0%
Malyons Road 56, 15, 78.9% 21.1%
Malyons Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Marsala Road 43, 11, 79.6% 20.4%
Peppermead Square 1, 3, 25.0% 75.0%
Railway Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Slagrove Road 3, 6, 33.3% 66.7%
Vicars Hill 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Total 199, 99, 66.8% 33.2%

So on the whole, the streets in the newly-proposed zones are in favour, with the clear exceptions being Ladywell Road, Slagrove Place and Peppermead Square. With Ladywell Road, the proposals is just to include the section from the station to Adelaide Avenue. Most of those opposed in this area were shopkeepers who are understandably reluctant to pay for the business parking permits. However, if Ladywell Road isn't included in the CPZ but all the surrounding streets are, businesses effectively won't have anywhere to park, as they won't be entitled to buy a permit and as at the moment they won't be able to park on Ladywell Road. Officers therefore feel that they need to include this section of the road in the scheme. The upside for businesses is that there will be more short stay (30 minutes) and pay & display parking for customers.

As far as Slagrove Place and Peppermead Square are concerned, highways have agreed to write to residents and explain the situation and ask them again if they would like to be in or out of the zone. Officers' concern is that if they are not in the zone, they will bear the brunt of the commuter parking from the hospital, which Malyons currently suffers from.

Chudleigh Road and Vicar's Hill - with both of these roads, TfL have been pushing strongly for double yellow lines in places, including outside some houses to allow buses to get passed. Although the majority in Chudleigh Road were against the CPZ, there was support at the end nearest Ladywell Road. Therefore the proposal is to make that part of the CPZ in the hope that it will also ease the situation for buses, without the need for yellow lines. The same is proposed for Vicar's Hill, which was marginally against the CPZ.

I asked about the car club bay, and there is likely to be one, but I'm waiting for confirmation of where.

I hope this helps to clarify any confusion

17 comments:

Tressillian James said...

Wow. 27% response rate out of which about 2/3 agree. That would mean approx 18% have voiced an opinion in favour. And it is going ahead in these areas. Wow.

Anonymous said...

yep, it suggests to me that either a large number of people are ambivalent either way, or, more likely, that people get so much stuff through their doors that they ignore it or throw it straight away. Not sure if there's a better, cost-effective way of consulting the area though.

Pete said...

Well at least the council have seen sense to separate out streets which voted no from those that voted yes. Of course they will now become harder to park on but then respondents should I suppose have taken that into account.

Lets not forget of course that a lot of people don't actually own cars. We didn't have one until very recently and our neighbours still don't have one.

dougie said...

Unbelievable.There has been no mention of the petitions against the cpz from Brookbank dry cleaners, brookbank newsagents or the cafe at the bottom of Vicars hill all of which had over 400 signatures against the cpz.Why should the roads who are strictly against the cpz have to pay Ermine road for example voted over 90% against it but still have to pay. Where too are the numbers for and against from overcliff rd?There needs to be an investigation about this as it is not right and certainly not a factual and true acccount.I.ll bet most of the readers though remember the guy coming arounf there homes asking if they wanted to sign a petition against the cpz.What has happened to these petitions. Had they have been included there would have been well over a thousand replies.

dougie said...

Pete they are doing it !They are forcing the streets who voted AGAINST the cpz to be in it anyway and still have to pay !£60 for each car for each house and £300 for a business vehicle. Not bad pickings at all.

bridget said...

Yeah i,d like to know about the petitions too. I too signed it and most of my friends locally,whats happened to them. All a bit suspect this.Why should we have to be in a cpz when we do not want to?
Its all about making money!

Anonymous said...

I think there may be some misunderstanding here - Ermine, Embleton, Algiers, Veda, Brookbank and most of the other streets that voted clearly against the CPZ are NOT being included in the proposed zone.

Algernon, Ellerdale, Marsala, Gillian Street, Malyons and a small part of Chudleigh Road were all in favour and will be included in the new proposed zone. A few bits where the result was marginal, such as Vicar's Hill, or where they would otherwise be surrounded by the zone, such as part of Ladywell Road, are also likely to be included.

So to a large extent, those areas that voted in favour are getting their zone and those that voted against aren't. Apologies if this wasn't crystal clear in my post.

Pete said...

Clear enough to me Sue.

There was no need for a petition anyway. Every household was sent one of the letters from the council and it was their responsibility to reply to the consultation. I voted no as did the majority of people on my street. As Tressillian James has said the response rate was crap - that's not the council's fault that's the fault of local residents who were either too ambivalent or too lazy to respond.

dougie said...

With what was said and Rob Sheppards premature blanket statement " that it,s going ahead" it,s no wonder people are confused.The questions over petitions still have to be answered though where are these petition results and why is there no mention of them from the council?These have been filled in by residents from all streets in the area and are obviously detramental to any discussions and counting for who is for and against.You have to take into account a alot of people still have problems with writing even in this day and age and it,s a lot easier for them to sign a name rather than fill in what was quite a large form.

Pete said...

Dougie, I don't believe that 73% of houses in the area don't have someone who can fill a form out living within them.

From the point of view of this consultation period the petition is completely irrelevant. Anyway what are you worried about, your street isn't in the CPZ and neither is mine.

Marc said...

Anymore details in how far the CPZ zone will be in Chudleigh Road?

Anonymous said...

No, I don't know exactly, but I know it's only part of the area originally consulted in Chudleigh, and that was about half the road, so I'm guessing just the quarter closest to Ladywell Road. If you were in the area originally consulted, you should get a letter clarifying this in the next week or so, if you weren't in that area, you can safely assume you won't be in the zone.

dougie said...

I beg to differ. The petition is totally relevant as there seems to be a very big distrust of the council in general as they normally do what they want regardless.The numbers in these petitions alone speak for those numbers ( I for one signed it and at the time I did there were at least 9 pages or so)In this case it was for the majority to decide what they wanted.Some people were of the understanding that the cpz would go ahead if the majority wanted it regardless of what streets did not. This has not been the case.Despite the fact that my street will not be in the cpz does not mean that I don,t feel sorry for the others that are.No-one is saying that 73% of people in some areas have not got someone who can fill in a form, what I am saying is that there are individuals who haven,t got anyone to do it for them(I have worked locally for many of them for years). In any event petitions were done and there has been no mention of them.People can say what they want about it but it still raises concerns about trust. WHERE ARE THE PETITIONS?

Anonymous said...

Dougie - do you know who the petitions were sent to, by whom and when? If you can e-mail me that information (cllr_sue.luxton@lewisham.gov.uk) , I can try and find out what happened to them and whether they were factored into the survey results or not.

I suspect that they probably weren't, as the whole point of giving each household a form is that people respond on that. They deliver one form per household and only allow one response per household back. With CPZ consultations the address of the respondent is very important, because they analyse the results by road and parts of roads. Were the petition signatures accompanied with people's full address? And of course they would only take into account the views of people living within the area consulted (or running a business), not outside it.

Anonymous said...

I've just spoken to the highways officer responsible for the CPZ and they did receive 2 petitions - one large one and a smaller one. However they said that they don't take petitions either way into account in CPZ consultations because they are not as reliable an indicator as households returning the form (sometimes people can feel pressured to sign a petition, or the question might not be worded in a neutral way, or people sign petitions without always being aware of what they are signing).

He also said that a lot of the signatures were from people who did not live within the consultation zone and clearly they could only take the views of those within the zone into account.

He is fairly confident that the results of the survey broadly reflect the views of residents within the streets consulted - those streets like Ermine where residents like yourself have said they are opposed came out against and those like Marsala where residents had been clamouring for a CPZ were firmly in favour.

Ricky and Liz said...

Hi Sue - thanks for the update.

I didn't receive the original consultation (living as I do outside of the proposed area), so had to print and send of the form myself. Guess that means I won't receive the letter about the results either.

Where can I see a map of the area in which the CPZ will be enforced?

Anonymous said...

Hi Ricky and Liz
I don't think such a map exists yet. There is still the statutory consultation process to go through, and my understanding is that any zone, once finalised, won't come into force until next March at the earliest.