Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Pay & Display review - Harringay Green Lanes
Following the parking charges increase in March 2011, the council agreed to a review after 12 months to get the views local residents and businesses. There was no commitment to undertake a further Economic Impact Assessment during the review but the council felt it appropriate to give businesses and motorists the opportunity to contribute to review. Questionaires will be distributed to businesses and motorists on Green Lanes, and in Crouch End and Muswell Hill next week. These will be delivered to businesses and placed on vehicles in pay & display bays at different times of the day over a period of 3 weeks.
The results of the review will be presented to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in July and go back to the cabinet in September.
This is good news and a real chance for local residents and local businesses to have their say on how these increases have affected them.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Grant on
-
I strongly expect the results of your review will be skewed if 'get the views of local residents' actually means 'questionaires will be distributed to businesses and motorists'. It sounds like you are actually excluding the views of residents (in a borough where around half of households do not own a car) in preference to 'motorists' who may well be non-residents just passing through and retailers who consistently overestimate the importance of car users and parking to their businesses.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
Agreed! Bring on the market to determine the true value of a parking space in Harringay (it's actually about £50 a month probably).
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
"Bring on the market to determine the true value . . ." But, John isn't there a small problem that some competitors have the financial clout to run parking as a loss leader?
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
Don't confuse value and cost.
Value is what you are prepared to pay: cost is what they think you will pay
-
Permalink Reply by Geoff Amabilino on
-
This subject ties in with the post about the spread of larger restuarants , and I agree that any consultation that does not include local road users who do not use pay and display bays will not provide a complete picture.
One of the recommendations of the Portas Review was that councils should introduce free controlled parking on high streets. Unfortunately a lot of people do want to use their car to go shopping, and will shop where they can park. Why pay £3 an hour on Green Lanes when you can park for nothing at a retail estate? So, if you want to attract customers to the shops we hate losing should we reduce or abolish the parking charges? My vote would be for a substantial reduction.
Possible result: more cars, parking causing congestion on an arterial route and on local side streets (with almost inevitable conflict with residents). But you could retain or expand the retail shops.
Further, if you want businesses that need vehicles (CG Gas from the other post being an example), they will need to be able to park them at reasonable cost and near the business base. Again, conflict with residents wanting to use the same bit of road to keep their car.
We already see this parking conflict with the increased evening restaurant trade.
In the case of a business like CG Gas, they also need a responsive trade parking permit system to allow them to park legally in local CPZs to carry out service calls at short notice.
Hopefully we will be able to find some sort of middle ground that we can all live with, and even more hopefully the Council will act to support it...
-
-
I very much favour the "middle ground" approach Geoff is suggesting. But as he says, the sticking point may be councils over-reliance on parking income - especially at a time of cuts. And by nearly all councils, not just Haringey. As we've seen, following Barnet or Westminster and getting greedy is not just bad policy, it provokes a backlash among residents.
But there are bound to be places which have successfully tried out clever ways to balance the parking needs of residents and businesses. While not losing too much of the parking income.
-
Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
-
Why not go for offering a system where the first 30 mins is free (with a time stamped ticket from tehmachine (albeit free) being obligatory), and after the the first 30 mins the cost per unit time is slightly more expensive. You get a balance and can recover some of the 'losses', if income is an issue.
You might also consider the possible increase in 'revenue' from people going over the alotted 30 mins and not paying that the super-efficient wardens on Green lanes will no doubt pick up on! My money is on the fact that you might see an increase in revenue as a result.
-
-
You seem to be tying retail success to car parking provision, where as far as I can see there is no evidence that parking restraint makes retail centres less attractive. I suspect that any effect of variation in parking provision is masked by more important factors such as: ease of access; whether there are shops people want to go to, and; whether it is a nice place to be. Looking at the success of out of town shopping malls (which definitely tick the last two points), attributing their success to acres of free car parking, and then concluding that all a business needs for success is car parking could well miss other factors that are as or more significant. This could well be the conclusion if the only people surveyed are motorists and business owners (who often hugely overestimate the importance of the car, and underestimate how many of their customers walked, cycled and used public transport).
My suspicion is, the sort of people who visit out of town malls won't be attracted back to high streets by providing easier car parking. But trying to do so (at the expense of a more attractive street environment) might well drive away the high proportion who don't come by car because they can get there by walking or by bus.
-
Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on
-
The sooner that all non-essential vehicle traffic is banned from Green Lanes, the better. Access should be restricted to public transport, emergency services, local delivery vans, vehicles for the disabled etc. Those private cars and the hundreds of lorries and vans driving on Green Lanes bring nothing to the area except air pollution and congestion. Sooner or later _all_ non-essential parking on Green Lanes will have to be banned, to prevent the traffic from seizing up completely.
Put the (non-polluting) pedestrians and cyclists first!
-
-
Karen i don't believe residents are being given the opportunity to complete feed back
Andy - gra
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
