Croydon from SimonCox.com

Parking Mad

Simon Cox — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

I'm hardly back for a few minutes and I discover that in my absense the Croydon Parking issue has raised its ugly head again. This time one of the local papers, The Croydon Guardian, carried a huge front page piece from Kerry McQueeney entitled "Parking Mad".

Apparently a shortfall of over Â£500,000 in Croydons Parking revenue is being blamed on motorists not coming to Croydon because the car parks are too expensive. The council claim that this is great news as it means more people must be using public transport (no - they are going to Bromley and Lakeside...). As predicted the council is in big financial trouble and it was looking to parking charges to make up a large part of that deficiet which is in part why CRAPP was formed - because we the residents will be the ones who end up paying for such terrible management.

Yes sure we have the new central block with House of Fraser, Nike and other Brand stores but how long will they last there I wonder. Exactly how much has the rent been subsudised for the first couple of years to attract these stores?

If I was in the Croydon Chamber of Commerce I certainly would be worried that Croydon is now attracting a lot less spending power. Our town centre is being driven down market, into the gutter and down the drain.

Vodaphone trying to put a mast in South Croydon

Simon Cox — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 01:00:00 GMT

So why do Vodaphone need to put a mobile telephone phone mast at South Croydon Railway Station? Everyone I know gets a good signal from Vodaphone in the area so why are they doing it? Well it looks like the people on the trains coming up from Brighton have complained that reception is not very good on their mobile phones as they pass through Croydon. So bloody what! Get a life people - no one likes you using phones on the train anyway, it's anti social. The other thing is that only residents within 100 meters of the station have been written to. As a daily commuter I must spend something in the region of 2-5 hours a week because of delays etc at the station or in the near vicinity - actually my local pub is within 100 meters so it may occasionally be quite a bit more...

What's more there is a nursery school next to the station - I expect that it will close within a year as parents take their children elsewhere.

Looks like another residents campaign is about to kick off then...
South Croydon Residents Against Mast - SCRAM.

If you wish to complain about the planned mast please write to:
[Planning and Transportation, London Borough of Croydon](https://web.archive.org/web/20091126171833/mailto:sharon_mitchell@ croydon.gov.uk).

Update!

Looks like the first application was turned down but they are trying again with a mast 2m shorter. We had a couple of very cold people at our door tonight with a petition. If you see them at the railway station please sign!

Absolute rubbish!

Simon Cox — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 01:00:00 GMT

Every Monday morning, early, I am woken by our two cats diving for cover under the bed as if they had heard tanks rolling down the street. It's half past six in the morning and the dustbin men, or Domestic Refuse Collection Operatives, are clattering their way from house to house. It's not being woken up at half six or earlier that bothers me as I am often on my way to the gym with my neighbour by then, but the amount of rubbish that litters the street after the refuse experts have bin and gone (pun intended).

Fox's tearing into the black bin liners for last nights roast chicken and dumplings have nothing on these men who appear to be half awake or just plain sloppy at their socially vital job.

Recently the council have put out the contract to tender and I do believe that the incumbent company that removes most of our litter may not have won it. This may explain why they are doing such a bad job. What worries me though is that the council will have chosen another company who will be cheaper, do a worse job and probably employ the same bunch of bin men that scatter our used packaging around with such gay abandon.

I will be keeping an watch in our road over the next few weeks to see how dustcart dudes fare.

Update!

This has been an ongoing problem for a very long time as a report in the Croydon Guardian will testify.

However it may not go on much longer as Cleanaway have landed the contract, not the incumbent MRS as I speculated. Perhaps we will see an improvement but please don't hold your breath for too long (you will need to hold your breath for quite a while) as guess who is in charge of Environmental Services. None other than our favourite councillor Mr Jerry Ryan - yes he of the ongoing and infamous parking fiasco.

Cleanaway meanwhile do not have a very good track record in London boroughs... Lets hope they can prove themselves in Croydon.

The residents of Solihull know Cleanaway very well as another Unison report critisises them...

U turn as Head of parking gets towed out

Simon Cox — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 01:00:00 GMT

Roger Woodward takes an early bath but is he just being thrown to the lions?

The front page of the Croydon Advertiser carried a fascinating story on Friday. "Head of parking goes as council slashes charges".

My immediate thought was hurrah! But on reading the story it appears that "Parking Manager of the Year" Roger Woodward has been made a fall guy for the councils controversial parking policy. Apparently the official line is that he has taken early retirement but considering it is suggested that he was at odds with other officers over the charging policy and was unhappy with the original levels it may be that a silent supporter of our campaign has been forced into retirement.

Heads should roll for the whole parking policy debacle, and I am sure they will at the next council elections when we, the residents, get to have our say on how well we think the elected members of Croydon Council have done their job. Policies should be thought through and all the risks assessed before implementation. If they are not, and I really have to assume that these steps were neglected else god help us all, serious economic repercussions can occur in Croydon's business communities as we are now witnessing, and the lifestyle quality of the residents can be greatly diminished.

If forcing out Roger Woodward is meant to appease the growing mob of Croydon discontents then again I think that once again the Councillors may well have wrongly read the mood. As residents we don't mind U-turns if they make things right - we are just exceptionally annoyed that the policy was introduced in the first place.

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 00:00:00 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 00:00:00 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 00:00:00 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.