Whilst
I and everyone I know, is pleased with Bexley Council’s AW1 CPZ introduced last September, the fact remains that it was designed by a madman.
Residents of the Priory Gardens estate (a long strip squeezed between
Abbey Road, Belvedere and the railway line) are the happiest because every
single one of them has their own off street parking space and a Residents’
Parking Permit becomes an entirely voluntary payment. They also benefit from
their roads no longer being blocked by Liz line commuters and the silence
brought about by drivers no longer cruising up and down the roads all day
looking for a parking space.
That doesn’t change the fact that the CPZ was designed by a madman. The 1984
planning permission for 319 dwellings allowed only three entry points from Abbey Road into Priory
Gardens which resulted in a plethora of cul-de-sacs. About 14 of them according
to Google maps and
every single one of them is yellow lined differently. Some
fully restricted, some not at all and many being partially restricted. In some
cases one might imagine a reason such as sight lines on a corner or dropped kerbs
but basically the whole thing is a mess.
Another oddity is that if one drives from Abbey Wood towards Erith, all the
roads on the left have signs to indicate that those side roads are part of a CPZ
whilst those on the right, principally Elstree Gardens and Kingswood Avenue, do
not although individual parking bays are suitably marked.
One has to feel sorry for the residents of Elstree Gardens because their houses
were not built with car parking in mind. Some car owners are driven to acts of
desperation and risk getting a fine for pavement parking. (Photo left.)
A resident living close by has drawn my attention to Hadley Road which I confess
in all my 39 years of passing it I had never noticed. It is a cul-de-sac off
Kingswood Avenue. For some wondrous reason it has a CPZ warning notice at the
entry point (Photo 1 below) and a complementary one on the reverse (Photo 2) to indicate you are leaving
the Residents’ Parking Zone. Except of course you are not.
Right opposite Hadley Road (Photo 3 below) is a sign saying that you are still
within a Residents’ Parking Permit area. The sign may be hard to see in
Photo 3, hence Photo 4. Note the post box and Land Rover to prove that they are one and the same.
Maybe there is some subtle difference in law between a CPZ as it applies to
Priory Gardens and Hadley Road but not the Parking Permit Zone which apples to
Elstree Gardens and Hadley Road AND Priory Gardens. If so it must be designed to confuse drivers and me.
Or it may just be that Bexley Council’s Highways Department is staffed by
madmen. I imagine that most of Bexley’s pot hole dodgers will be inclined to think that it is the latter.
One might also ask why commuters may not park in the free bays alongside Lesnes
Abbey any more. It is not a residential area and the only imaginable advantage
is that two buses can now pass each other which previously they did not dare to
do but Bexley Council can
hardly claim credit for that when it was them that narrowed Abbey Road back in
2009 in order to create as much danger as possible. And in the process created
Bexley-is-Bonkers.
Insanity is the way of life in Bexley's Highways department.
