Charlton residents livid over changes to roads

Sandtoft Road sits in Greenwich borough and is known among locals as being part of the Charlton Slopes area.

Roger Warhurst, 78, has lived on Sandtoft Road for 45 years.

The CPZ in Sandtoft Road

He said he found out about Greenwich Council’s plans to expand the existing Charlton controlled parking zone (CPZ) from a consultation last April, meaning cars could only park in the area between Monday and Saturday for two hours without buying a permit or risk being fined.

Mr Warhurst told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It’s a bit of a ridiculous time to bring in charging in my view. Everything else is coming in, all the energy costs and taxes. Why on earth do they want to do it now?”

He added: “The reason is because we’re a soft touch in terms of the rest of the borough because the CPZ formerly was here.

"All they had to do was do a bit of minimal consultation and make a bit of money out of it. It’s all about revenue raising, there’s no benefit to us at all.”

Mr Warhurst said he and other pensioners on the road without computers struggled to respond to the scheme’s consultation, as well as buying a parking permit when it was formally announced that the scheme would be brought in.

Another man, who also lives on Sandtoft Road and did not want to be named, said residents received a notice through the door on December 22 to say the scheme would be introduced on January 15.

He told the LDRS: “People were absolutely livid because it just felt quite thuggish… Everyone’s politically disengaged and then the council weighs in. We never hear from them and then right before Christmas, and in the middle of cost of living increases on prices, they do this.”

He said said those living in the area started a residents’ association after receiving the news.

He said the group held a protest against the scheme two weeks ago, and claims the council has sent officers to monitor the street since then.

The resident said: “They’ve sent now, almost daily, people into the area to be seen to be enforcing the new CPZ. They know that we’ve pushed back and they’re kind of sending a message to the area.”

Greenwich Council documents from September 2023 said that about 7,800 properties were consulted on the scheme between April and May last year.

Within this figure, only 5per cent of residents responded, with the council receiving 20 supporting comments and 290 objections to the scheme.

Council officers added that the authority received a petition signed by 286 residents, claiming they did not feel the proposed CPZ expansion was appropriate.

The man said residents in the area are also worried about the council’s plans for additional road restrictions in East Greenwich.

The council revealed plans last August to change traffic routes on either side of Greenwich Park to create a "safer and healthier environment" for residents.

This would include potentially preventing all traffic aside from public transport and essential vehicles going through specific roads in East Greenwich.

While the initiative would not be directly implemented on Sandtoft Road, the man said the scheme would be a "disaster" due to the spillover effect it would have.

He said residents have contacted their ward councillors but have received no satisfactory response, and generally feel "ignored" by the council.

He added: “Whenever the A2 is chock-a-block, people will spill onto Eastcombe Avenue. When that happens, the cars just sit there and all the CO2 comes out.

"There is a school right there. Imagine it, and we’ve seen research carried out that suggests that up to a third more traffic will come down that road every day.”

Greenwich Council documents from February 2022 on a proposed low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in West Greenwich said that traffic flows on surrounding roads such as those around Maze Hill would increase by up to 27 per cent.

The engagement report on the most recent East Greenwich scheme said that 64pc of residents had some form of negative feelings towards the initiative, based on a consultation with over 5,000 responses.

Eleanor Restall, 48, lives on Sandtoft Road and said she is worried about how the new scheme will impact boundary roads after seeing the level of traffic that goes through streets such as Vanbrugh Hill in East Greenwich.

She added that she worries about the bus her daughter with special needs relies on to get to school will be affected.

She told the LDRS: “When there was the West Greenwich Low Traffic Neighbourhood, boundary roads became queus of traffic all the way down it with lots of pollution.

"And then, kind of on top of the pollution, you had the very dangerous things where cars were getting very frustrated and so then they would drive down on the wrong side of the road, trying to cut into side roads to get around the traffic from different angles or to get into residential roads.”

She added: “We’re in an area where we have hardly any public transport and my daughter actually relies on the 380 bus for going to school.

"There’s various challenges with being a parent for somebody with special needs, it’s quite difficult to get her up in the morning.

"It’s that bus that saves us and It also means I don’t necessarily have to go the whole way with her when I’m trying to get ready to go off to work. If that doesn’t get through the traffic and I’ve got to get her into school somehow, she gets very anxious and it will become unreliable.”

The residents of Sandtoft Road and the surrounding area have sent a letter to Greenwich Council to challenge the expansion of the Charlton area CPZ.

They claim the authority failed to properly consult the residents of the area or take into account the results of the consultation when making the decision to expand the CPZ.

A Greenwich Council spokesperson told the LDRS that the decision to introduce the CPZ in Charlton is currently the subject of legal challenge, so the authority is unable to comment at this time.