Has anyone else noticed the increased amount of traffic since the opening of the new East London Line?

I do like the new line but I struggle to park anywhere near my property on Devonshire Road. I'm not adverse to a bit of walking but it's a bit different when you have a baby and shopping or deliveries.

Why has our road not been permitted like most roads near stations in London? I would pay for peace of mind. I find it dangerous taking my child out of the car on the road especially as most people ignore the new 20mph limit.

Also, yes ranting, they need to stop people from turning right on to the A205 as this creates the massive queues along our road, alway nice listening to peoples stereos and breathing their fumes!

Has the council noticed how bad our road is, for various reasons. I also lost a cat to the speeding traffic and witnessed a van run down another and had to tell a sobbing women what had happened. I had a car that had the bumper ripped off and a chunk taken out of the tyre that wasn't cheap!

Does anybody know of any future plans for parking permits?

Permits should be introduced. The council should ask the residents and I''m 100% confident that everyone will want them given the current situation.

The 20mph speed limit has done nothing to reduce the speeds. If anything the new road surfacing work has made it even more like a race track and actually helped to speed up traffic along the road.

This situation needs sorting out ASAP and we need to do something about it.

I avoid driving down Devonshire Road at all costs, because I know that sooner or later I'm going to lose a wing mirror or a bumper to some crazed van driver coming the other way. Given how close it is to the station, it should absolutely be permitted for residents. But I have no idea what can be done about the aggressive drivers.

In my road they put in central reservations to slow the traffic down.

There does seem to be more of a parking problem on Devonshire Road at the moment - certainly down at the Honor Oak end where I'm getting occasionally blocked into my own driveway by selfish/desperate drivers. Presumably, to be effective, a CPZ would have to extend to the roads like Riseldine, Grierson, Garthorne etc. There's another thread about this subject here: http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=548

On the subject of the 20mph limit, this was also discussed a while ago: http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php...7#pid24777 and according to Lewisham's statistics most drivers they measured were close to the 20mph speed limit. The fact that measurements were apparently taken 'in the middle of Devonshire Road', which by my reckoning is roughly outside the nature reserve and actually one of the slowest sections, might have had a bearing on their figures.

As an observer and a driver, it's possible to see that many other drivers ignore (or simply aren't aware of) the 20mph limit on the flat sections at either end of the road.

Bit surprised that the Council have not introduced parking permits, be a bit of a money spinner for them, I know that in many other Boroughs in London, almost every road/street has parking restrictons, naming Wandsworth as one, have a look at their webpage

The Council does a consultation with local residents before introducing parking zones, and that costs about £50k. Quite a lot to recoup from permits fees just to break even.

Maybem yet in other boroughs, you pay £95 per year for a permit, think they would soon re-coup their money based on that

You would be surprised how expensive it is to manage parking permits. Im working on an IT system for this for another London council at the minute and its complex (and therefore expensive). Thats just the IT side - then you have to have trained people available to take calls, etc etc. It's really just a service and not a profitable exercise.

Thanks ryananglem, I will let my friend know the next time they moan that the price is high for parking

I just don't believe it's that hard or expensive to manage a parking scheme. Fixed amount of people houses and permits. . .

Enforcement is probably the hardest thing to do but they could outsource that to residents.

It's 2010 and it about time the council and the entire public sector got up to speed with the real world.

If they've done it for one borough or elsewhere in the same borough then why not simply replicate?

50k for a consultation? You are having a laugh. Surely there's a better way?

Lewisham Council seem to share this view, Jonathan. Cutting down on consultations on new parking schemes is one of their current proposals for cost savings

@JonathanH

In a simple world based on someone saying "please can I have a permit" and the council sending them a sticker, it would be easy and fine. The reality is that people steal other people's identities, people move out halfway through a permit period and want money back, own two cars, have visitors who want to park in the area, change cars, move within the same parking area and want to transfer their permit etc etc and someone (the council) needs to manage that. This management is not cheap. Would the number of parking spaces affected multiplied by the annual cost, pay for one person's salary to manage? I doubt it.

The question is, should the rest of us pay for a system that will benefit some people (in this case Devonshire Rd residents), and the council has to decide if it has the money to spend helping those people.

I don't own a car, and if asked, based on the costs that would come out of my council tax I'd probably think it was a waste of money that would be better spent on schools, local policing etc..

Just my 2p.

I used to live in Devonshire from 85 to 07 and traffic then was very bad.
I was close to Ewelme Rd but cars about six pm often back beyond there waiting to enter South Circular.
This was very annoying as one could not open front windows because of the noise and pollution.
Seems now reached a time to ban non locals parking there. There lazy people who drive and park to get the train bring no commercial benefit to the locals.

@Robin Interesting, thanks for sharing

@Ryan I see your point totally. I just can't accept that it's that hard or expensive. I pay my council tax for things that benefit me and other people. It all comes out of the same pot and I guess for once I'm asking for something to be done that directly benefits me.

Perhaps if they had cut down on the amount of budget allocated to things like completely screwing up the recycling scheme (stickers for bins, more bins, different lids, fitting new lids, leaflets, someone coming round and explaining the stickers and leaflets, someone coming round again and explaining the new bins stickers and lids etc) then they might have had some cash left over for something blatantly more important.

Schools, policing and everything else is of course important. It's a question of prioritisation. Plus, being efficient and smart.

@Brian It's got worse . . . especially with the increased amount of people running and dumping to catch a train.

I believe that if residents have parking permits and the area is parking permits only, then surely that will ease the congestion for the good people of Devonshire Road unless they make it like they have in other boroughs, where residents with PP can park, yet you can get a ticket from a machine if you dont have one, then again, maybe this is a drawback of living close to shops/train station

A simple permit to each house owner in the road to display in their car when parked.

Need only be policed once a day as long as between 9 and 5 pm.
One swoop on the road daily should not take long.
Guess problem only up to say Ewelme Road
However I suppose the HOP end has the same problem so maybe the whole road excluded.

An alternative would be to make bits of Devonshire Road One Way and then change the One Way direction every 500 yds. This would not satisfy everybody, particularly those living in the streets up to Honor Oak Road which would have extra traffic. It just goes to prove that 'You can't please all the people all the time'.

How would that work, junegapi? Do you mean alternating contraflows up and down the road, with pinch points where people have to wait and give way? I've found those make people even more aggressive. More than once I've seen two cars wedged in a pinch point because the person who should have waited just refused to.

The main problem with Devonshire Road is that it is just too narrow when fully parked to implement almost any of the traffic calming methods suggested. Short of stopping all parking, which would be impossible for residents, what can be done?

I hope I detect June's tongue firmly in cheek.

I would say to leave well alone, because you will just push the problem elsewhere and the whole of FH & HOP will end up respark or meter. Once you start, you can't stop, so don't even go there.

I do sympathise with the people at the bottom of Devonshire Road, and they no doubt pay a premium price on their properties for being close to the station. Well, I'm afraid this is just another element of the price. If it's one you're not willing to pay, you can always move.

I know this is a simplistic analysis, but I was hoping that the new Condem government and Big Society would mean a move away from the nanny state dictating every move you make and towards a more free market approach.