Andrew Dismore

Dear editor,

 

Your front page story (8/10/15) about the Pulse wanting to  charge £25,000 for an open air parking space comes as no surprise. Time and again, when new Colindale developments are given permission by Barnet Council, they ignore all representations  about the need to  ensure adequate parking space.  The result is that neighbouring  streets are overwhelmed with parking from the new estates like the Pulse and Beaufort  Park, so  it becomes  inevitable that long standing residents will be faced with a CPZ scheme, for which they will have to pay. This is grossly unfair, but it can only get worse as yet more development is built out,  for example the thousands more flats coming on the Peel Centre and Newspaper  Library sites.  Greedy developers should not be able to charge more for a space than the council charges for a parking permit.

 

Only Last week, Barnet gave itself permission to build its new offices in Grahame Park. Again inadequate parking – but there will be 70 spaces reserved for council officers in the RAF Museum car park. This  is a typically hypocritical  Barnet Council slap in the face for existing residents, who have seen the car parking available to them dramatically reduced as a result of the Grahame Park ‘regeneration’ with car parks now built on or used as works sites. I previously suggested that one option would have been to negotiate with the RAF Museum for the use of some of their parking space for residents, but this was not something either he council or  Barnet Homes were prepared to take forward for residents- but they will for themselves.

 

It is clear Barnet Council puts  a greater premium on parking for its staff than for local residents.

 

 

 

Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden