Forum Topic

Parking suspensions madness around Chiswick lane

All parking bays are going to be suspended for 3 days this week on Chiswick lane and all the streets leading to Chiswick lane. Nobody has been warned, the residents, our local councillors, the traffic wardens apparently. Somebody estimates that 200 cars will have to be moved… Where? Any ideas? John Todd has been contacted by worried residents. A case for class action in case fines are issued?

Martine Dismore ● 1215d12 Comments

Why?I noticed that Hammersmith not only put up Corex warning signs but also individual flyers on cars well in advance of intended works near St Peter's Square.Hounslow, take note.

Adrian Irving ● 1215d

For tree pruning and cleaning. The signs are only at the junctions of the streets with Chiswick lane. So somebody who doesn’t walk that way cannot know about it as there are no other signs in the streets.I got alerted to it by an article in The Chiswick calendar and went to check the signs.They cannot expect so many cars to be moved at the same time for 3 days. It’s just impossible. Our resident parking area is very small. Maybe a mistake?

Martine Dismore ● 1215d

LBH will have removed the signage in Cornwall Grove and Chiswick Lane by tonight.They are the subject of further investigation by Parking Services Officers.A 4m bay outside 58 Chiswick lane is being converted into an e-bike bay. This work will continueJohn

John Todd ● 1215d

"A 4m bay outside 58 Chiswick lane is being converted into an e-bike bay"That was the only work site with a decent sign.  All the others that I saw in the last hour in Chiswick Lane, Ashbourne Grove and nearby roads were handwritten and virtually illegible.  None of them gave any location apart from the road name.  Most of them said it was for "cleaning and line painting".  There were a number of yellow no-waiting cones which were presumably meant to define the location more precisely, but appeared to be randomly spread about.I suspect that they were all to do with the E-bike hire scheme, and I noticed several newly-installed "CYCLE HIRE ONLY" bays in other streets in the area.If anyone gets a PCN as a result of parking near one of these signs, please let me know at parking@rjen.uk as most of the signs were completely inadequate.

Richard Jennings ● 1215d

Thank you very much for taking an interest in a situation when the council takes  the residents for idiots. We certainly won’t  move our car with signs so badly written we had to guess what they said - and wrongly apparently.In Cranbrook Road, we had an “E-bike hire only” notice painted but it's at the other end of the road, not near Chiswick lane. It will be interesting to see if recycling lorries or the heavy vehicles that go to the Sipsmith distillery will be able to manoeuvre round the corner IF THERE ARE ANY BIKES PARKED THERE.

Martine Dismore ● 1215d

Has any enforcement actually taken place in bays suspended by these badly written signs?To be fair to the council it is a challenge if a street needs to be cleared for cleaning and tree pruning particularly in an area where there will be not alternative places to park for cars that need to move. Obviously this particular exercise was handled very badly but even if Hounslow followed Adrian's best practice suggestions seen in nearby H&F, how would it be possible to complete clear a street of parked vehicles - where would they go?

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1214d

"To be fair to the Council" This is their job. I don't know why you would feel the need to defend them  Can you hear the level of distress in the original post.  You don't need to condemn them but why defend ? when you read the level of incompetence.  I just don't get it.

Maggie Dodge ● 1214d

There is no question that this whole exercise has been badly mismanaged but details about what exactly has happened remain scarce. What is known is that some badly written signs appeared on a Chiswick Lane and a number of side roads of it warning of an imminent parking suspension. By the sounds of it these may have been put up by contractors tasked with doing gully cleaning and tree pruning rather than properly authorised council officers. In a nearby location there is a properly suspended bay with compliant signage for the installation of e-bike parking which suggests normal and proper procedure is being followed when parking bays are legitimately suspended.Therefore these signs may have just been advisory put up by the contractors in the hope some residents would move so they could do some of the work they have been scheduled to undertake. As it appears no enforcement was actually undertaken and the signs now have been removed this seems a more likely explanation although Cllr Todd may be able to confirm.Every resident of these roads will want their gullies cleaned and their trees pruned and would accept that this may require them to move their cars. What appears to have happened here is that no formal arrangements have been put in place to enable this and the result, as you correctly say has been distress for residents.That the council has failed badly here is beyond dispute. Although the signs may have been put up by contractors, the council clearly has neglected to put in proper processes to enable them to do the job. However, using this fiasco simply as a stick to beat them without recognising that getting this work done is a complex and challenging exercise won't get us any closer to working out how to do it right.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1214d

One of my neighbours complained to a builder who had put out cones with signs warning residents that they would be towed if they park there.  They were clearly not official suspensions and the builder removed them as soon as he was confronted.

Nora Watkins ● 1214d

"even if Hounslow followed Adrian's best practice suggestions seen in nearby H&F, how would it be possible to complete clear a street of parked vehicles - where would they go?"For a "deep clean", if it's necessary to clear parked vehicles, Hounslow Highways usually suspend parking on one side of the street for a day, then suspend the other side the next day. That works OK.  For tree pruning (and I don't think that was involved in this case), parking is suspended around the tree being worked on.

Richard Jennings ● 1214d

Thanks for that Richard. Can we now say for sure these signs were an opportunistic attempt by a contractor to make space to get work done, never officially approved, not enforceable and no tickets were issued?

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1213d

I cycled past early this morning.No parking cones have been placed along the west side.I could only see two yellow correx signs. One towards the south end the other to the north.I turned off at Beverley Road so there may have been more than two  but I doubt it.

Adrian Irving ● 1213d