Parking in the Draytons
We did some door knocking in the Draytons area of West Ealing tonight to get a better idea of the strength of feeling on implementing a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in the area. We’ve been lobbied quite hard by e-mail and at our ward forum meetings for a CPZ but what is the view of the residents overall?
At our last ward forum we agreed to carry out a consultation in the next financial year. Hopefully the Council will put it in their consultation programme, but if not, we will fund it from our delegated ward forum budget. There are a number of pressures on parking including commuter parking from West Ealing station, residents of the flats at the Sinclair House site, Waitrose staff and sorting off staff. But another major pressure is the fact that the residents have too many cars – the terrace houses have effectively one parking space in front of them, yet many households own two or even three cars. A CPZ cannot resolve that problem unless you introduce a punitive charge on a household applying for more than one permit.
So what was the overall view of residents? Frankly it was mixed with quite strong opinions both ways. However, even in roads like Drayton Avenue, which is one of the hardest roads to park in, there is still a significant minority against a CPZ. If this was replicated in a vote my gut feeling is that residents would reject the CPZ at the moment.
The consultation to take place next year will be interesting.
Tags: Controlled Parking Zone, Draytons
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30 October 2009 at 5:51 am
I live in The Draytons.
The question residents must ask themselves is whether the implementation of an Ealing-style CPZ would make car parking any better for them and would its implementation be of overall benefit to The Draytons and the wider community?
These are quite challenging questions.
Because Ealing Council fails to publish its CPZ Policy, it’s hard for non Ealing-style CPZ users to know what they would be in for.
There is no empirical data on who parks in The Draytons, why they park there and when they park there. Nor is there likely to be any such data as it’s not Ealing Council’s style to collect such data.
Since Nick Abel’s arrival as Manager of Waitrose in Alexandria Road, he’s sensibly let his staff park in the Waitrose car park Monday to Friday.
I’m sure there is no traffic/parking modelling data on the likely traffic/parking impact of Crossrail West Ealing in Manor Road and the possible 83 new flats likely to be built at 51 Drayton Green, Manor Building and 46,Manor Rodd. Add in the 282 new flats to be built just a short stroll across Jacob’s Ladder in Green Man Lane Estate, and you have a significant additional resident car, visitor car, deliver van population wanting to park and negotiate the already congested roads in The Draytons and immediately to the south.
So, in summary, I think all us residents will be ‘flying blind’ when we fill in our Draytons CPZ Public Consultation forms in 2010.