CPZ

Doug

Sorry to be a parking bore, I clogged up Stroudgreen.net and the Yahoo Groups Forum with this, but now that we are all CPZ-ed up, what have we gained?

Parking has returned to just about the same state that it was in three years ago; all but impossible in Woodstock Road and the surrounding roads close to Finsbury Park Station, and no real problem up here in the leafy shires of Lancaster Road.

So thanks to Haringay Council's initiative - er - nothing much has changed. Oh, I forgot. Anyone with a car is now paying the council £25 a year. That's lots of us.

Was the council interested in improving the parking situation, or reducing car ownership (£25 a year not being a huge disincentive), or raising money?

As there is now a debate about extending the CPZ to the surrounding areas, it might be time to stop this juggernaut continuing to steamroller all of us.

andy

£25!

On the Islington side of the fence, we pay NINETY-FIVE quid a year.

Add to that rapacious armies of traffic wardens, ticketing and clamping at the first (and often wrong) opportunity.

Add to that incompetent, sullen and unfriendly service staff who neither understand nor care whether you get what you need or not.

Top it all off with a set of rules about the where, who and how of permits that is bafflingly complex and enforced with jobsworth narrow-mindeness.

I'm not against CPZ's in principle, (though in most cases they are a waste of time and effort.) What I object to in Islington is the way they run it. Arrogant, bull headed obstinate and absolutely unwilling to help (or admit a mistake).

These bastards work for us. Not the other way around. They seem not to understand that.

Liz

HAH! You should try living on the Islington side. I don't have a car, so can't tell you what the yearly fee is (though I'd bet my left arm it's more than £25). My road, which only has houses on one side and only ever had a parking problem on matchdays, was made CPZ about 2 years ago, and it's really pissing me off. The zone runs from 8.30 to 6.30 Monday to Saturday (oh yes) and how many day long parking vouchers am I allowed to buy for visitors in a year? FIVE. Yes, that's five. And they cost a bloody fortune - about £5 each I think. So that's £25 for 5 days of parking. There are parking meters, but you can only park for 2 hours at a time. Magic. Overall, I would support this policy if I really thought it cut car usage/ownership but instead it seems to penalise those of us who don't have cars but might have friends who want to visit. Grrr.

Pete

I've been trying really hard in my head to make CPZ a london phrase for demilitarised zone.

Lucy

I HATE CPZ.

matt

Just got the letter through that I'm in the CPZ from April 30th - £75.

I'll be happy if that means a street that's easier to park in but somehow I don't think it will!

Colette

Dunno, I don't have a car, but there certainly don't seem to be any parking issues on Albert rd. I do slightly resent having to fork out for visitor permits on a road where there don't seem to ever be any parking problems though.

David

Try paying fines on empty roads, [rage](http://www.horrortalk.com/reviews/28DaysUS/28Days-11.jpg). Scams the lot of them. Though compared to Islington, my Haringey experience of getting _CPZ-vouchers-that-work-TM_ has been much better.

Giles

Raking up an old thread here, but is there a list of events on at Finsbury Park so we know in advance when visitors have to have vouchers ( don't want to invite a bunch of people over then use my ration of visitor vouchers in one go ). At least with the Arsenal you can find the fixtures on their website.

Colette

It's just when the football's on that you need the vouchers isn't it (that is, when you're outside of normal parking restriction hours)?

Ali

I was really against it when it came to Stroud Green a few years ago but it seems to have worked very well in Lorne Road. It has stopped commuters form blocking the place up and I very nearly always get to park straight outside my front door. It is also safer for kids as the cars are not all rammed up together or parked on corners etc because it is policed. It seem pretty good value for £25 although a bit of a nuisance for visitors and it must impact people parking to go to the shops and restaurants etc

Giles

The question wasn't about the rights or wrongs of the CPZ, it's that some of the signs ( but not all ) say that there's a restriction of days when there are events on at Finsbury Park.

How do we find out if anything's on?
Is there anything on this year? I've not seen anything. Have Madness packed away their baggy trousers and the Fleadh lot packed away their fiddles for good?

Colette

I think the Rise, or whatever it's called, anti-racism festival thingy is on this year. Not sure when though. It used to be in Finbsury Park then moved to victoria park, but it's back with us now.

Four Eyes

The RISE thingy is on 15th July this year.

I'm on Upper Tollington Park and a sneaky tip when I have visitors, rather than park on the street for £2 an hour or something is to park in Finsbury Park itself by the cafe which is 50p for 2 hours and £5 for the whole day I think. All you have to do is walk over the footbridge and up Oxford Road, it's only 2 minutes walk. Although last person I knew who parked there ran out of time and got towed away and crushed by Haringey (or something similar)