Whitelands parking perversity

I've written before about the crazy decision by Wandsworth Conservatives to give permission for over 100 homes on the Whitelands Park development off Sutherland Grove without a single parking space for their residents. The point was also made in a Wandsworth Guardian story almost exactly a year ago.

But now the Conservatives are about to create a whole lot more trouble for residents of Whitelands Park because they're planning to introduce a controlled parking zone in Sutherland Grove, Combemartin Road and Skeena Hill, the nearest "free parking" streets in the area.

So in a few weeks time, residents of Whitelands Park will be denied a parking space in their own development and will be banned from parking in the street closest to their home. And to add insult to injury, the Conservatives have rounded things off by refusing to even consult Whitelands residents on the parking scheme that will directly affect them.

The homes denied parking spaces on Whitelands are mainly for key workers: people like nurses, police officers, ambulance medics, firefighters, teachers and council workers, all of whom do a fantastic job keeping London a world class capital. What's common among most of these professions is a need for shift work: leaving or returning home in the early morning when trains aren't running and bus services barely functioning. In short, many of those the Conservatives are denying parking spaces to are the people who actually need and depend on a car.

Whitelands Park is a 20 minute walk from Southfields tube. The only bus routes close by are the 39, 493 and 170; none of these modes of public transport operate 24-hour services. This area is classified as having poor public transport accessibility at the best of times.

The Conservatives have messed up gravely over Whitelands Park - to the extent that they have since changed their policy in this area so that these errors will not be repeated in future developments in the borough. But instead of seeking to mitigate their mistake the Tories seem hell-bent on making it worse. Fairness dictates that they must let Whitelands Park have its say on this parking zone; and if the Conservatives want to press ahead with it the least they should do is provide some facility for Whitelands residents to park somewhere near to their homes.

I hardly think this is unreasonable. The Conservatives do. Worrying, isn't it?