October 2011: now it's REALLY bad.

This is the first week since the new expanded Stroud Green CPZ took effect. This comes right up to Ridge Road (at the southern end of our street). It joins the expanded Crouch End CPZ which comes right up to Ferme Park Road, next street along to the west. We of course are in neither zone. We are Just Outside both. The first non-regulated street everyone comes to.

The grindingly predictable outcome is now reality. Nelson Road is permanently jammed with parked vehicles while yards away in the controlled zones there is ample space.  Parking used never to be a problem in this street: that it has now become a very big problem is due entirely to the steady encroachment of the surrounding CPZs. We and our neighbouring streets running north from Ridge Road and east of Ferme Park Road get all the displaced vehicles.

What this means in effect is not just ultra-congestion of parking, caused by people who do not live in the street. It means a clear lessening of the quality of life. It means that delivery vans cannot pull over, and so have to block the entire street. Similarly builders' vans and trucks. If you have work needing doing on your house, tough: your builders won't be able to get anywhere near you. Pollution and noise increase hugely as vehicles back up, reverse, toot their horns, get enraged, drive endlessly up and down looking for a place to stop. People cannot call in on friends and relations. Ambulances have to sit in the middle of the road. This has now got very serious indeed. It is a problem that Haringey Council has caused with its piecemeal approach to CPZs.

And yes, following strong representations from residents and their councillors, earlier this year the council grudgingly conceded that our streets should be included in the CPZ. Finally it admitted that there was indeed a problem with displaced vehicles. Consultation took place. We were offcially notified that the expanded CPZ to include our streets would happen.  But when?  The council is vague.  Possibly December, we are told.

Look - we need it NOW. Please, please, get moving on this.

Two photos, taken this Tuesday lunchtime, say it all. The first is of Ridge Road, now in a CPZ:

And the second is our street, Nelson Road, just round the corner from the first photo. Yards away. It's Just Outside The CPZ. It looks like this:

It's easy to see the problem. We know what needs to be done: introduce the CPZ to our streets immediately. The council acknowledges the problem that it has caused. Why is it taking so long?

The other side of the fence

Walk a few hundred yards from our streets jammed with other people's vehicles, and you find this. In the adjacent CPZ, a street curiously devoid of them. Wonder where they all went?

The onslaught begins

So: this is what our street, Nelson Road, looked like, mid-morning on a Monday, shortly before Crouch End's latest expanded CPZ was introduced, coming right up to and including the next street, Ferme Park Road. Compare it with the photo beneath...

Also taken mid-morning on a Monday, but this time in the week just after the expanded CPZ was introduced in the streets adjacent. Notice any difference?  Strangely enough, the street is now full, mostly with vehicles we haven't seen here before.

So it's hello to our new friends the breakdown trucks:

The old camper vans:

The seldom-used delivery vans:

And some choice guano-encrusted vehicles:

And a load of ordinary cars that we haven't seen in the street before. Plus the odd added bonus such as a stolen car that suddenly turned up, but which the police spotted and towed away. Thanks, lads. Everyone else of course is here entirely legitimately because we are Just Outside the CPZ.

It's now the Easter holidays, a time when our street used to be half-deserted. Not any more. Come the autumn, the CPZs will expand eastwards along the ridge at the top end of our street, meaning yet more CPZ-dodging vehicles will go looking for a home. Something to look forward to.

Before the onslaught

This is my street, Nelson Road N8, taken mid-morning on a Monday recently. Tranquil, eh? Fairly normal in my part of the street at that time of day, as those who go to work by car have driven off. I'll be posting other pictures once the immediately adjacent CPZ takes effect, to see how it changes this view.  If it doesn't, of course I'll be delighted.