30 April (Part 1) - Beware the 7 day parking restriction coming to a street near you
Last May Bexley Council sent a letter to residents
who live near the centre of Bexleyheath which said they were planning to extend
on-street parking
restrictions to midnight and enforce them seven days a week. It claimed that
businesses had been complaining about the amount of Sunday parking - which most
people took to be a lie - and further restrictions were justified by the
redevelopment of the town centre.
There
were protests but to no avail.
In the fullness of time the proposal was
watered down
to retain the old restriction times - although beware the frequent stealthy
extension creep across the borough - but Bexleyheath would get seven day enforcement
which if Bexley Council is correct will have got every town centre trader on his feet cheering.
But don’t think that is the end of the matter. Bexley Council’s greed knows no bounds.
The contagion was forecast in
the blog for 6th June 2016
Various reports, vaguer than I would like, have come in from around the
borough suggesting that all, or maybe most, of the other shopping centres will
be meted out the same treatment.
Unfortunately no one has sent me a copy of any letter Bexley Council may have
sent out but presumably it will be similarly welcomed by all the traders who are
clamouring for a footfall reduction.
Has Bexley Council used the same old “substantial expansion and
redevelopment” excuse they applied to Bexleyheath or has another far fetched
story been manufactured?