Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

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Sydenham
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Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by Sydenham »

Not sure if this has been picked up by anyone, nor how serious is the proposal but Lewisham has plans to introduce a borough wide CPZ in the next year. This was laid out in their 2021/2022 budget.

Confirmation in a tweet by Cllr Sophie McGeevor (@SophieMcGeevor) today ("It ("borough wide CPZ") was in the latest budget. All residents will be consulted and details provided in updated parking policy later in the year" and it was mentioned in an earlier News Shopper article: https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/1885 ... eras-cpzs/

This appears pretty drastic. Sydenham has few CPZs at the moment so implementation would be a major change to the area if implemented and would require all vehicle owners to get a permit to park their own vehicles unless they had off street parking.

Anybody have more specific information on this? Am I reading too much into this?

Any update from Councillor Best and Councillor Curran?

(Disclosure - I don't own a vehicle myself)
JRW
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by JRW »

Even if people have off-street parking, they'll need a permit if they want to park their car anywhere else in Lewisham. Otherwise, forget driving to the shops.
stuart
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by stuart »

Is this true? As an outsider you have to pay, if you have a car, in other areas. But not a permit.

Surely an incentive to desert four wheels for two - whether powered or not. Both are better for efficient road use and the environment.

Stuart
f4monty
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by f4monty »

I couldn’t see anything in her Twitter feed about it. Can you point us to it?

Personally speaking, as a pedestrian who has to endure the fumes, I have no objections. And I’ve never quite understood why people think they have a right to plonk their private property on the public highways and not expect to pay for the privilege...
Sydenham
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by Sydenham »

Here's the twitter link: https://twitter.com/lewicyclists/status ... 61408?s=20

and here: https://twitter.com/SophieMcGeevor/stat ... 19562?s=20

Sophie replied to Lewisham cyclists with regard to a comment that subsidies for bike storage were being removed.

I had a quick look in budget documents but couldn't find details about CPZ introduction. I'd be very pleased if this is not as it seems - I don't want the whole of Lewisham to be under a CPZ regime
stuart
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by stuart »

Why?

Stuart
Sydenham
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by Sydenham »

@Stuart: you ask why? More faf, more admin, more having to think about something else. Less ability to just get on with life without reference to administrative bodies. Maybe it's an age thing. Also it doesn't recognise the diversity of Lewisham's areas.

One positive is that there is no hiding that the proposal is a revenue raising measure. So it makes sense to be a blanket policy across the borough. The more we (the general public) are faced with the lack of money available to run the mandatory services, never mind optional, the better. We all need to be involved in council making decisions on our behalf. I wish we could choose to increase Lewisham's revenue raising powers - my understanding is that the council is limited by central government on the amount of any council tax increase.

I'm pretty certain this is not the only significant change mooted in the council's budget for the coming year - I would like them to be more publicly articulated. Reading about this on a tweet related to another matter was a bit of a surprise. That's why I asked whether anyone else was aware of this.
stuart
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by stuart »

A very balanced answer @sydenham.

Given that around half the Borough don't have cars and are the most likely to benefit from Borough spending - charging for the semi-permanent occupancy use of a public space by those able to afford cars would seem reasonable. Of course any taxation system is unfair for some - especially for those who really can't afford a car but need it for employment. Pressing, in tandem, for higher London living wage levels may be a way of accommodating that issue.

But for many on-street semi-permanent parking is a more a lifestyle choice rather than a human right surely? What might push you to suffer the faff to moving the balance to more environmental and healthy transport modes and reducing congestion for essential commercial and public transport services? Not to mention the emergency services? Meanwhile shoring up the borough's social services?

Stuart

Declaration: I do have off-street parking but I hope that doesn't disqualify my questions.
alywin
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Re: Borough wide CPZ - to help Lewisham budget shortfall

Post by alywin »

[Waits for all the parking to move over the boundary line into Bromley :( ]
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