Bromley Council has defended the charges, predicting the borough-wide parking scheme will raise over £400,000 a year and help plug the council’s ever-growing budget gap.
But many business owners on Windsor Drive in Chelsfield believe the removal of some free parking bays has driven away customers and reduced footfall.
Bromley Council decided to start charging motorists to park on Windsor Drive in March as part of a scheme introducing paid parking to 12 shopping parades across the borough.
A petition with around 2,000 signatures calling for parking to be made free again was presented to Bromley Council on October 13.
Following a heated debate, councillors voted 26 to 24 to keep the charges.
The council alleged that for many years there had been “a level of abuse” at free-to-park limited time bays, with motorists regularly parking for longer than is allowed and using the bays to park near a station and commute into the city.
The allowance for stronger enforcement was given as another reason for implementing the paid parking scheme.
Windsor Drive businesses and residents have been unhappy since the charges were introduced on their road.
Mel Hales, Assistant Funeral Director at Welham Jones, called the charges a “fait accompli” and claimed she and other business owners on Windsor Drive were barely consulted before they were introduced.
She fears the parking charges are an added burden on her grieving customers.
Mel said: “They are clearly in a state of deep distress. They are not thinking clearly at all. Half of what I tell them will go in one ear and out the other.
“They will park outside and quite possibly not even be aware [of the charges]. I will make them aware and say to them ‘Please don’t park there because you’re going to pay a fortune’.”
Her main objection to the new parking scheme was that north of The Meadway (a road that intersects Windsor Drive) motorists are charged a flat fee of £5.30 for all-day parking if paying via the RingGo app, while to its south they are charged 90p per hour for up to three hours plus 40p in app fees.
Welham Jones is to the north, and Mel is concerned that cars making up funeral processions will park outside to be dressed with flowers and they will all have to pay over £5 each.
This concern extends to the hearse that will carry the deceased on the day.
Mel thought it was “horrific” for those to the south of The Meadway as well.
As an example, she feared potential customers to the two cafés would go elsewhere as the parking charges would add an extra £2 or £3 to their trip for a few hours’ stay, essentially adding the price of another coffee onto their trip.
Mel added: “I think, not just for us but especially for those businesses [south of The Meadway] and given the economic climate and how much people have been hammered, especially independent business, it just kind of perplexes me.
“Does the council want independent businesses to thrive or do they want them to be absolutely annihilated and go out of business?”
Bromley Council says it has kept some free parking in a limited number of spaces nearby, with a restriction between 1-2pm to prevent commuter parking.
The council also argues it has “probably the lowest parking charges in London”.
Lily Beanj is the owner of Little Big Treats, a tea room on Windsor Drive that opened nearly two years ago.
She said: “It affects businesses. People are not happy to park and you have older people who don’t know how to use RingGo. It’s confusing and many of them can’t use smartphones.”
The LDRS visited Little Big Treats on a weekday afternoon and the tearoom had no customers. Lily added: “Before it was full and you could not find a space. Right now it is empty.”
Just two doors down is another independent eatery, Chelsfield Bakehouse, which opened around the same time as Little Big Treats.
The bakehouse had a few people inside during our visit. Its owner Cihan Mehmet said: “Normally this time in the afternoon we are jam-packed.”
She said the two cafés had attracted a lot of locals to the shopping parade over the past couple of years, but thought the new parking charges were driving them away.
Bromley Council has admitted the new parking charge scheme was a way to raise revenue to try and plug its budget gap in lieu of reduced government funding, but many of the Windsor Drive businesses felt the charges were a false economy.
Cihan said: “Are they better off? Increasing the parking charges and ruining businesses, then businesses don’t pay rent and don’t pay business rates.
“They really have to rethink their plans. No one is happy, apart from Bromley Council. Our customers aren’t happy, we are not happy and our staff are not happy.”
Cihan thought that an hour’s free parking could be a suitable compromise, giving customers enough time to make use of the businesses without being charged to park.
Marcia Lechley, practice coordinator at Chelsfield Dental Practice, said both the practice and its patients felt the charges were “very harsh” considering how small the Windsor Drive shopping parade actually is.
She said: “The two cafés have only been open the past two years and they’ve really built up a good business, both of them. They’ve definitely had a drop in business since RingGo was set up.”
Marcia doubted the new charges will bring in the amount of money Bromley Council expects. The council has predicted it will raise over £60,000 annually if all 39 bays on the road are used each day for at least four hours.
Marcia thinks motorists will “take a chance” to avoid paying, and the council won’t be able to afford cameras or extra enforcement officers to catch these chancers out.
She added: “I just think they’re killing the little trade that is here. We might not lose business because our patients have to come as it’s a healthcare thing.
“They’re not being fair to the traders or the public. I’ve had three elderly patients who don’t want to put their card on their phone and they haven’t got the app.”
In response to the concerns of Windsor Drive businesses, Bromley’s Executive Member for Transport, Highways and Road Safety, Cllr Nicholas Bennett, said the introduction of charges had been scrutinised and supported by the relevant council committee in March.
He said: “If the bays in [all 12 of] these parades are occupied for four hours in total during the day, some £408,000 will be raised.
“This money is used to defray the cost of road maintenance and the Freedom Pass and means that less council tax income is needed.
“The council is facing a deficit of £59million by 2026-27 as the biggest portion of our income comes from government grant funding including restricted grants.
“Although the bays were time limited without charges it was difficult to target overstayers and cost more in enforcement than was raised.
“Our experience at other parades, where charges have already been introduced, is that it prevents the bays being used all day, often by shop owners and their staff and produces a regular turnover of customers for whom the bays are intended.
“A number of bays have been reserved for all-day parking and the ones on the opposite side of the road remain free with a restriction between 1-2pm to prevent commuter parking.
“The free bays on Warren Road used by commuters, often from Kent, will be converted to all-day parking bays at the same price as charged in the two car parks.
“Following the initial decision I decided, in response to representations by ward councillors Mike Botting and Angela Page, not to remove the free parking on the other side of the road and to introduce hourly charges in place of all day charges at the council-run car park.
“Bromley has probably the lowest parking charges in London, we don’t charge by type of car or engine. At Windsor Drive a half hour stay is 65p, equal to sixth of a price of a cup of coffee.”
