The solution to illegal parking in a south London suburb has left locals and shopkeepers astonished and angry. Overnight, 22 huge boulders have been deposited on New Addington’s Central Parade prompting shoppers to ask if the area has been hit by a meteor storm.
The anti-parking measure, which reportedly cost £7,000, is the idea of Croydon council but what is even more surprising – given that a lack of parking is recognised as one of the factors contributing to town centre decline – is that the money came from Mayor Boris Johnson’s Outer London Fund which was established to ‘boost local high streets’ and ‘improve lives.’
Angelia Jordon works as a funeral arranger on the parade and her first thought was that the street was the site of an ‘alien invasion.’
She said; “They look absolutely dreadful, like a meteor shower. They have just been plonked down on the road. Children are climbing on them and playing on them and in winter it is going to be a nightmare.”
Ken Burgess, chairman of the Central Parade Business Partnership, says the boulders were placed on the street to address the concerns of residents about illegal parking. He believes it is a ‘pedestrian friendly’ solution, which is preferable to installing bollards, and that locals will ‘get used to them.’
However, local truck driver Trevor Gayle disagrees. He said; “Why are the boulders here? There just isn’t any point in them. It is all a moneymaking scam. They just want to charge people to park rather than let them do it there. Instead they’ve put these really silly stones in.”
Do you live or work in New Addington? What do you think of the anti-parking boulders? Let us know below.
