Residents in Charlton got an unwanted present from Greenwich Council on the last working day before Christmas – three weeks’ notice that they will have to pay £111 to park in their streets.
The council is introducing permit parking to streets around Bramshot Avenue and in other locations in the area following changes to the local controlled parking zone (CPZ).
Consultations on the Charlton parking scheme began four years ago and officials had previously said they would introduce the permits this month.
Instead they waited until Friday to give residents in the affected streets just 12 working days’ notice that permits would be needed from January 15th. Some locals had already gone away for Christmas and missed the hand-delivered letters.
One local councillor branded the timing “completely unacceptable”.
One resident, Matt Penston, said: “This is pretty poor timing. Many neighbours are now away and won’t be back until after Christmas. So they will have very little time to be able to buy a permit.
“We are being asked to find additional money at the worst possible time of the year. I won’t get paid before I have to pay for this permit. If we had some notice we could have budgeted for it but now we’ll have to go into our overdraft to cover the cost.”
Greenwich Council is planning to introduce CPZs across the borough as part of its transport strategy, although there is bafflement in Charlton as to why some roads have been selected for permits while others will remain a free-for-all, despite officially being in the zone.
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: “Our letter was dated the 18th but hand-delivered on the 22nd. Dropping these off with little more than three weeks’ notice, just before the Christmas and New Year break, is pretty poor given that the consultation process has been dragging on for months, if not years.”
In a email to a resident, Charlton Hornfair Labour councillor Lakshan Saldin said: “The proposed timelines around the implementation of the scheme and the way in which they have been communicated, both in terms of communication to residents and communication to councillors, are completely unacceptable.” The email copied in Averil Lekau, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for transport.
A council spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire: “We understand Christmas is a very busy period, but it doesn’t need to be a working day for a resident to apply for a permit as our convenient self-service online portal is accessible 24/7 and issues a quick ready-to-go ‘virtual’ permit from whenever the chosen start date is.
“Once a resident has completed the online application and paid the fee, which they can do at any time between now and 15 January, the permit will be ready to use and valid for 12 months.
“If residents have issues they can email permit-queries[at]royalgreenwich.gov.uk or call the council on 020 8921 4339. We also have an assisted application channel for those with specific access needs, available at either The Woolwich or Eltham Centres.”
There has already been controversy over plans to extend restrictions until 9pm on Charlton Athletic matchdays, even though crowds at The Valley have fallen since the club’s relegation to League One in 2020, particularly for the evening matches that the scheme would target.
The Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust estimated that the club could lose £1 million a season because the poor public transport links between Charlton and parts of Kent and the southeast London suburbs could deter many fans from attending matches.
Questioned about the issue by the Conservative councillor Matt Hartley earlier this month, the council’s assistant director of transportation Ryan Nibbs said that due to the concerns raised by the trust and by the club itself, a decision would be made by Lekau – rather than council officers – in the new year.
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