Our motoring correspondent, JEREMY CLACKSON, goes through the small print of the Tory council’s latest wheeze to make an extra £1m a year from residents – including charging drivers of zero-emissions cars seven times more than previously
No alternative: even before the end of March, the council started removing its parking meters – regardless of its public consultation
One of the borough’s largest residents’ associations claims that the council is trying to sneak in night-time parking charges, in what could be another massive blow to Croydon’s already struggling night-time economy, while also hitting thousands of residents in new-build blocks of flats.
The plans have been approved by Tory Mayor Jason Perry, with a report signed off by his cabinet member for streets and environment, Scott Roche.
Inside Croydon reported this week how Mayor Perry had stitched up the council’s environment scrutiny committee, appointing climate crisis sceptic Alasdair Stewart, a Conservative councillor, as its chair. The move has been described by opposition councillors as piss-poor Perry “marking his own homework”.
The money-spinning parking proposals could be among the first big items on the agenda of the now Tory-chaired environment scrutiny committee.
The council claims that its proposals are “cost neutral”, but the official papers also suggest an extra £1million per year in revenue, up from £10million, from the parking proposals.
The council has proposed some free parking periods in the borough’s district centres, but since March – long before the public consultation had been completed – it has been removing all the parking meters on Croydon’s streets and car parks, forcing the public to use a smartphone app or, if they don’t own a smartphone, try their luck in finding a nearby shop offering online payment facilities.
Money-spinner: Tory cabinet member Scott Roche
Buried away in Appendix C of the official council papers are the new night-time charges – which could hit thousands of residents in flats built in the past decade without any dedicated parking spaces.
Parking in Croydon Council car parks has always previously been free after 6pm. Under these proposals, the only place where night-time parking will remain free of charge is New Addington.
The council says, “The changes are intended to encourage lower emission vehicles and to help address air quality and public health objectives. They are also intended to improve access to amenities to serve local shoppers and the economies of the district centres.”
Yet the council’s own report shows that they plan higher charges to park lower emission cars. Under Mayor Perry’s proposals, drivers of zero-emissions vehicles will pay seven times more for parking their car than at present.
There’s also huge increases proposed in charges for annual permits – some increases of £700 or more.
The council also says that its recommendations “are aimed at simplifying parking charges”.
Some of the proposals included in the council’s formal consultation were not mentioned when the various schemes were first floated last year.
The council wants to remove completely all simple free time-limited parking. This is being replaced by pay-by-phone parking, with a zero charge for the first hour. The charge is then £2.40 for two hours, “hardly cheap”, according to one resident.
“No other council in outer London uses this system,” they say.
The problems using the RingGo app were presented to pro-pollution Perry and the council last year – and ignored. Pay-by-phone means that every Croydon resident downloading the app has to provide personal and financial details to a third-party, private company, with all the data security risks that comes with that.
Some also claim that the phone app system discriminates against older residents. “Older people are far less likely to use a smartphone, to use the internet on their phone, or to use internet banking. How are they expected to park their car in Croydon?”
While the council insists that there will be a PayPoint alternative available in shops in all locations around the borough, where people can register their car to park for free on the street, trials last year highlighted the serious shortcomings in that system.
During the trial, the advertised PayPoint in Purley was at Shell petrol station – a long walk away from the parking spaces. Sources working at the garage claim that the PayPoint there had never worked.
East Coulsdon Residents’ Association this week lodged their response to the council consultation.
Business interests: ECRA’s Charlie King
ECRA chair Charlie King wrote: “We welcome the adoption of our suggestion for district centres of one-hour free parking and a second hour paid for at a sensible price,” ECRA says.
“We also welcome that this will be standardised across the borough.”
But he added that the council plans to extend controls to shopping parades across the borough which have never previously been metered or controlled in such a way. This, ECRA says, will “have a detrimental impact on these local shops and economy”.
ECRA has asked that a 15-minute “grace period” should be built in to the hour’s free parking to allow time for people to visit a PayPoint, which, they say, “does take some time and can be inconvenient for very short-term parking”.
They add: “It is also detrimental and discriminatory against those who do not have or cannot use a mobile phone, particularly the elderly of which there is a large number in the local area.”
The 15-minute grace period “would also enable people who just want to drop off or pick up somebody or something from a local shop or business the ability to do so without risk of incurring a penalty charge”. It is a system commonly used by supermarkets and at railway stations. “The Government guidelines suggest at least 10 minutes.”
And ECRA rejects the notion of night-time parking charges. “The existing free parking after 6pm and all day on Sundays are very important to the economy of Coulsdon and must remain.”
King said of the night-time parking charges: “Government policy says that parking should reflect the needs of businesses and communities.
“This does not.”
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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