Has anyone looked at or suggested a pedestrian bridge linking the parking on the south side of the railway with the Bird in Hand Passage? Surely this will solve most parking problems associated with Dartmouth Road and give more people opportunity to park and shop?

It would allow shops to deliver (as stated in the FH Society outline) but hopefully stop random vehicles from blocking the road.

Londondrz,
I happen to believe it is a great idea and have discussed it various people.

Unfortunately all new public footbridges apparently need to be fully accessible (unlike existing ones such as Sydenham Park footbridge), this would mean including lifts in the design. As a result the cost would be massively inflated, just to pick figures out of the air we would probably be looking at £3m for such a bridge, and it is difficult to justify this type of expenditure on a pedestrian bridge.

The only hope would be for a large development above the Perry Vale car park and keeping the public car park underneath, but it seems unlikely. Alternatively we could find a way to explain that the footbridge doesn't disadvantage disabled people, who can have extra reserved bays in Dartmouth Road (but I don't think this works as an argument).

I don't think the Sainsbury's car park often gets full, despite 2 hours free parking. This car park is not far from the shops or the pool, but many people still find it more convenient to drive up and down Dartmouth Road in the hope of a space rather than just parking in Sainsbury's.

Do people even know the Sainsbury's car park exists? I'd lived in the area probably a decade before I worked out where it was.

Michael, why go to the expense of a lift, would a ramp bridge not work? In regards to Sainsburys, during the weekend the car park is sometimes full as are the surrounding roads (no CPZ on a Sat or Sunday). And yes, the Sainsburys car park signage is there, if you look really really hard.

The Sainsbury's car park is a pain in the ****. The ticket machine outside so often doesn't work so then there's a bunch of faffing about to the other machine, back to the car, then on with the errand in hand.

Barriers and a pay-on-foot system? It'd get my vote.

Plan B: put a pre-pay ticket machine at the entrance, like in the Perry Vale car park, then you can pick one up as you go in.

Mr Numbers, given it is free parking for two hours it is not that much of a faf is it. I am sure a disabled person or someone in a wheel chair would find it inconvenient but in the grand scheme of things having to walk for 30 seconds to the other machine is not that difficult.

When you say 'pick one up on the way in' to Perry Vale car park, I'm sure you don't mean you are one of the people who stop their car on the entrance ramp (thus blocking cars coming in behind you) hop out, get a ticket and carry on. I, on the other hand, AM one of the people stuck behind leaning on my horn in protest at such selfish behaviour.

Londondrz, there's a large part of me that completely agrees with you and says I'm being a lazy idiot. But there are plenty of times when it just feels like it takes longer to get a parking ticket than it does to do what I'm parking for.

Fair point, rshdunlop. But I would never do that if there were cars behind me. And there's certainly space for at least one car to come in behind me off the road for the 5 seconds it takes to pick up a ticket.

I'm sure, rshdunlop, that you were simply making a point in your posting and that you're not really one of those people leaning on their horn in protest because that would be a violation of the Highway Code.

But I'm sure you knew that and you were just having a pop at what you assumed was me being selfish

Mr Numbers, I do agree with you in some part and my post was a tiny bit tongue in cheek. However, I think upsetting the status quo with the free parking is a little dicey.

Give it a few more years on my creaking legs and I will be howling for a booth and attendant.

This post was last modified: 24-06-2015 09:13 AM by Londondrz.

If you start a petition, I'll sign. I'm already starting to creak!

In these days of cameras and CCTV everywhere I'm not sure why pay and display is necessary in car parks. Why not just have number plate recognition on the way in and out. Park for more than 2 hours and get a parking charge. Park for more than 6 hours and get a hefty parking charge/fine.

Perhaps such a scheme requires registration for first time users, but that is no different from parking metres across much of London.

I would add that the same technical solution could be implemented for parking on Dartmouth Road and other areas with limited parking bays. The difference here is that you replace the parking enforcement team with the use of a camera system that can see if any car outstays its welcome. The cameras could either be mounted in CCTV columns or small drones that could constantly patrol the street.

There's a very similar scheme at Canary Wharf. When you collect your ticket at the barrier on the way in, you'll find your ticket has your number plate printed on it.

It's still paper-based and you pay at a machine* but when you leave, a camera at the exit barrier recognises your number plate as having been paid, so it's much quicker than faffing (that word again) about, trying to find the ticket down the side of the driver's seat and then stuff it in the machine.

Point being, we have the technology.

* It's a while since I've been there but I think, at weekends, you can get your ticket validated in any shop where you spend over ten quid, to get two or three hours' free parking.

Mr_Numbers - did say I was sure it wasn't you.

Lots of places around London already use licence plate recognition for parking. Paying by mobile even without recognition systems has been around for yonks. Lewisham is so far behind the times with this it's ridiculous.

This is how I see it.

The first thing that Dartmouth Road needs is more car parking to help the shops survive; and the second thing is for pedestrians and traffic to be able to move freely.

I disagree with the notion that we would benefit from more public seating areas because, for such a short stretch of road (from pools to station), the seating by the pools is more than sufficient - especially as we're surrounded by nice parks and green spaces. Er, plus the prickly subject of street drinkers.

The bottle-neck by Boots and Bunka etc needs to be a clearway with high pavements and posts fitted to safeguard pedestrians and to prevent vehicles parking by bumping up onto the footpath. Obviously there should be ramps for buggies and wheelchairs.

The trees outside the Sylvan Post and Paddy Power are too big, dark and overbearing so they should be replaced with a nice line of smaller, even 'happier' ones; and part of the pavement there should be given-over to loading bays to service the shops at that end of the road.

Even more controversial, part of the grassed area and the front line of trees should go to create 9 more car parking spaces. With some skill and imagination the it could be made to blend-in quite well. I am aware that it goes against the rose-tinted-specs vision and so-called importance of the pedestrian flow into the pools from the station but I'm sure we'd get over it.

I agree with the ongoing calls for a footbridge and I would argue against the case for including prohibitively expensive lifts on the basis that disabled shoppers could be given one or two dedicated bays on Dartmouth Road as well as the fact that they can already use Sainsbo's car park anyway.

I wonder what the law actually is about this? Is it really unlawful to build a footbridge with stairs unless there is specific provision (lift, ramp) to allow people who cannot manage stairs to use the bridge?

Hence my response for a ramp or circular ramp bridge which is suitable for wheelchairs and buggies.

Indeed, but what I was wondering was whether if for any reason (cost, shortage of space) it was impossible to provide a ramp it would be unlawful to build a bridge at all.

I agree almost entirely with anitherjohn. The two main priorities for this stretch of road have to be ease of traffic flow and effective parking for the shops. We have got to make it easier to park on the street and drop in for an hour to enable the shops to increase footfall. I think the footbridge is a red herring. Absolutely no one will use it to access Dartmouth Road if there is the potential of free parking the other side. This pretence that people will walk/come on public transport is a total myth. Having no parking at the pools is ridiculous. At the moment people just park their people carriers on the streets behind or block the road.