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New parking restrictions anger Heath users
Susanna Wilkey
NEW parking proposals have incensed people who go to Hampstead Heath by car to walk and enjoy the facilities around Kenwood House.
Plans for a controlled parking zone (CPZ) have been branded a "stealth tax" by residents and Heath users say accessibility to the parkland will be hindered.
Haringey Council's plan is to extend the CPZ operating around Highgate Station to include Hampstead Lane, Bishopswood Road, Sheldon Avenue and other surrounding streets. It would stop everyone except residents parking between 10am and noon, which Heath users say punishes people who come from far and wide.
Manager of the Brew House at Kenwood Simon Dodd said: "We feel very strongly about this and we are going to make a big protest as are all the regulars, who are up in arms.
"Not only is it a ridiculous idea but they put the sign up telling people about it in a side road - not on Hampstead Lane where it should be.
"We will be affected by it massively. We are very angry and upset. There are quite a number of regulars who always come during that time and they are understandably very upset."
John Bartlett, a pensioner who lives on Coolhurst Road in Crouch End, regularly takes morning strolls and stops for coffee at the Brew House.
He said: "My morning walk will be ruined if the CPZ goes ahead because we cannot get there unless by car. The consequences will be awful for a lot of people. They have not thought this through. I was furious when I found out about it."
Sheldon Avenue resident Steven Parnes said the proposal is disgraceful, particularly because the streets are nowhere near Highgate station.
"I believe the proposition to be unnecessary, unreasonable and unfair," he said. "I have never had a problem parking in front of my house nor for that matter any house in Sheldon Avenue and adjoining roads.
"This proposition is unwarranted and unwelcome. The arguments put forward hide, I think, the fact that this is a tax to park your car outside your house and should be resisted."
Jeremy Wright, who lives in Dartmouth Park and is part of the Heath and Hampstead Society, said: "Hampstead Lane is an extremely wide road and for the part from Athlone House to Kenwood I see no need at all to have a CPZ. It is used mostly by people using the heath, not commuters at all."
To comment, email frontline.consultation@haringey.gov.uk by the end of today (Thursday).
A spokesman for Haringey Council said it had received requests from residents just outside the current CPZ zone to consider including them in the zone. "The consultation exercise is precisely to gather everyone's views," he said. "We welcome people to contact us know and all the views will be taken into account.
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