Whitelands Park parking fiasco

Yet more parking absurdity from Wandsworth Council: when they granted planning permission for the huge Whitelands Park development in West Hill, the Council allowed developers Crest Nicholson to build over 100 homes without a single parking space for the residents.

Last year I exposed how the Council has banned residents of the SW15H development behind East Putney station from being eligible for residents parking permits, even though the developer of SW15H has refused to give them any off-street parking space either - effectively leaving them in limbo.

This parking saga is about to rear up and bite the council where it hurts, though. That's because in a fortnight a new parking system comes into force on Whitelands whereby only those who have designated spaces will be able to park, pushing everyone without them, and their visitors - potentially 200 extra cars - onto Sutherland Grove and surrounding streets. This in turn will create huge parking problems for residents and their visitors here.

And if residents then demand a controlled parking zone, will the council again try to ban Whitelands residents without off-street parking spaces of their own from being eligible for parking permits? I bet they will.

The Conservative Council stands accused on several fronts. Why did they allow Crest Nicholson to build over 100 homes with no off-street parking? Where residents of these new developments are banned by developers from using the off site carparking, why does the council persist in their policy of banning residents from being able to apply for residents' parking permits? Why have they not obliged Crest Nicholson to honour all the terms of their planning permission? And why do they regard key workers as second class citizens? A large number of West Hill residents - and I - are demanding answers.