Croydon from SimonCox.com

Private Ryan beats the retreat

Simon Cox — Fri, 25 Apr 2003 01:00:00 GMT

Well now! Private Ryan has had to do a major U Turn on the parking policy as the towns retailers are losing money, closing up and moving out because of the farcical Parking restrictions. Ryan and his 'Dream Team' (they must have been asleep to think the scheme up in the first place) wanted shoppers to use public transport to get into the town centre and so restricted local parking, thereby upsetting the residents, and increasing council run car park prices.

So are the people switching modes of transport? No. They have switched shopping locations instead as its more convenient for them.

Ryan and his cronies are destroying Croydon and turning it into a slum which may suit him but not us.

Even the council friendly local paper has is concerned: ic Croydon - Croydon facing economic disaster

Croydon Council Tax and Revenue Budget 2003-04

Simon Cox — Sat, 22 Feb 2003 24:00:00 GMT

Oh oh. Heard a report on the radio today that Croydon is raising Council Tax by 27.5% - the second highest in the country. So I had a good root around the Council website and sure enough found a document.

We notice that there is no referendum on our level of council tax this year. We also remember the councillors telling us during the parking protests that there was not a £14m deficit. So why do they need this extra money? Are our local amenities going to be 27.5% better this year - I suspect not.

The grant for the council from central government is apparently less and more is going to towns in the North - so we suffer. But this was bound to happen so why is the council spending not reduced 27.5% so that our tax remains the same.

Bay Watch

Simon Cox — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 24:00:00 GMT

The council have promised residents that there will be lots more parking bays put into the streets. Please let us know if you see any new parking bays - or indeed any parking bays disappearing because of lowered pavements or bays converted to disabled only.

I have noticed in Temple Road that they have spray marked the kerb to move one of the restriction sign post about 5 ft further into Temple road. Naturally this will mean the double yellow lines moving a further 5ft into the road as well making the single yellow line gap to the first parking bay not quite big enough to park in. So although we have not lost a designated Parking Space one less car can be parked in Temple Road after 5pm.

Problems getting worse

Simon Cox — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 24:00:00 GMT

The Central Zone restrictions are now in force and we immediately noticed a rise in the number of cars - most without permits - parking in our street. This is people in the Central zone being displaced.

It really is not fair on any of us.

This will hit Croydon’s restaurants and so people will tend to go out for meals in other places.

We have already noticed a brand new bistro bar in Purley high street - a short walk from Councillors Ryan’s house…

Saving Ryans Privates

Simon Cox — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 01:00:00 GMT

At tonight's council meeting there was an emergency debate to pass a motion to individually consult with every central zone resident whether they were for or against the changes to the CPZ. Sadly the councillors towed the party line and voted against the motion 36 - 27. The Fairfield councillor Pat Knight voted against residents getting a choice in the matter.

The arguments in the Council chamber for the motion were well structured and compelling. Meanwhile Councillor Ryan's statement spent a great deal of time accusing the residents against his plans of being inflammatory and politically motivated (both untrue) and very little in the way of a decent argument.

Despite there being over 1200 objections to 4 approvals from Central zone residents Ryan has decided that residents don't know what they really want and that in 6 months he guarantees (that is what he said) that the residents will have changed their minds about the plans. Well, we will see if he saves his skin.

Next Council Meeting

Simon Cox — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 01:00:00 GMT

The next meeting of the Full Council is on Monday 14th October 2002 in the early evening.

Superb victory for residents spoilt by one amendment…

Simon Cox — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 01:00:00 GMT

A huge number of residents turned out for the Croydon Council Traffic Management Cabinet Meeting tonight. Our lobbying has had a major impact on the Council's plans. Such was the effect that the first motions that were passed in the meeting allowed council members whose wards are affected by the plan, and the member of parliament and GLA representative who represent the area to speak at the meeting. This is unprecedented as was the venue - this committee have not met in the main council chamber for the past 5 years. The public gallery was packed with concerned residents, as was an overflow room, with audio provided. The BBC have been filming for most of the day and you may see some of us on the news tomorrow. The biggest shock of the night was the amendment sheet handed to us as we filed in for the meeting. Amended recommendations had already been added last week but even more concessions were added today before the meeting. But they included one point that was not a concession.

The amended recommendations will apparently add over 500 parking spaces in the CPZ (we will be watching and counting). The ridiculous hours and Sunday rules have been dropped in all zones but central. The very sour point is that the central zone will be restricted from 7am to midnight 7 days a week. This will cause huge hardship to those residents: who is going to be shopping at 7am on a Sunday? This measure will cause an overflow knock-on effect into the surrounding zones and also raises huge concerns over residents' safety when they have to walk a long way from their car to home in the worst crime area of the borough.

We are still opposing this issue - 1.2 on the recommendations - as is our local MP Geraint Davies, GLA Representative Andrew Pelling and local councillors.

A good debate ensued only spoilt by a councillor harping on about party politics and the World Summit which was very out of touch with local priorities and the issues at hand.

The chair, Councillor Ryan, has promised, yes promised, the extra bays and that the situation will be reviewed after a short time. We will keep the pressure on until residents are treated fairly.

More from us later when we have looked into the full implications of the amendments.

People power works - never underestimate your constituents.

Proposed changes to parking controls in Croydon

Simon Cox — Sun, 11 Aug 2002 01:00:00 GMT

After the residents and businesses of Croydon successfully fought the first proposals to change the parking restrictions, Croydon Council are now trying to push through dramatic changes to the existing zoned parking arrangements for Central Zone as follows:

Existing hours for the Croydon CPC

9am - 5pm Monday to Saturday

Proposed hours for the Croydon CPC

7am to midnight, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!!

This not only affects Central, but will affect the bordering zones with displacement parking.

How this affects my local road

In the road I live in, which did not have or need parking bays when I moved in in 1992, residents park on the single yellow line when they get home from work and there is enough room for all. This draconian measure means that there will be a bun fight fight for spaces especially at weekends. The parking spaces were put in the road to protect residents from shoppers using the road to park in but that has never happened and appears to be a lie and this measure seems to be simply for creating revenue for the council to fill holes, not potholes ut budget holes.

Please think how this will affect not only your own parking but for your visitors and customers. ALL the residents we have spoken to think this is outrageous.

The official way to object is by writing to: Order Making Section, Parking and Technical Services, 1st Floor, Davis House, Robert Street, Croydon, CR0 1QQ Quote Reference to be advised

Please be aware that signing a petition is NOT enough - a petition counts as one objection only, even if everyone in Croydon signs it, whereas each letter received by the council counts as one objection each - so please write in by the 9th October 2002!!!

There appears to be many people getting petitions together and delivering flyers in their street - if you are one of these people or know who one is please get in contact with us. We want to get everyone co-ordinated against this.

(This site has NO political affiliations whatsoever. It has been built by very concerned residents of Croydon. If you want to help out please get in touch.)

New page on parking

Simon Cox — Sun, 11 Aug 2002 01:00:00 GMT

We have now built a page for the action against the parking plans.

Update

Should have mentioned where the new page was and what it was about but I did not. We did build a new website though.

Croydon parking - Council are barking

Simon Cox — Wed, 07 Aug 2002 01:00:00 GMT

Croydon council have decided to put up the cost of residents permits and, rather more importantly to extend the parking restriction times from 9am-5pm to 7am-7pm inclusive of Sundays.

Allegedly this is in line with the Mayors public transport initiative. My arse. Its simply a way to get more money from the residents.

Update

Oh so many updates - a whole movement happened because of this. Croydon Residents Against Parking Plans was set up and was very active.