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'Our streets are car park for Westfield'
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard7 Nov 2008
TOWN HALL chiefs have changed parking rules after residents complained about shoppers using their streets as Westfield's car park.
People living near the new shopping centre said they were unable to park and roads have been clogged up.
During the first four days of opening, Westfield London attracted 500,000 visitors - some of whom took advantage of free parking on Sunday.
Now Hammersmith & Fulham council is using emergency powers to introduce rules to protect bays for permit holders on Sundays.
Residents say they have already put up with a year of building noise and have gone from living on a construction site to living in a car park.
Lawyer Sharon Michaels, who lives in Shepherd's Bush Place, has hung a sign on her Grade II-listed cottage saying: "H&F: Putting Westfield first."
She said: "The whole year has been a nightmare for us and it's not getting any better. I can't sleep any more because of all the disruption.
"Last Sunday was a nightmare. People came here to park rather than be charged. I didn't dare leave the road - it was full of people being forced to do 101-point turns." Her neighbour Sara Tibbets, a documentary maker, said: "The parking situation is so bad soon we'll be forced to park in Westfield."
In four weeks the current Saturday controls will be enforced on Sundays in Controlled Parking Zone G, which contains the worst affected streets in the area. From 2pm to 4pm and 6.30pm to 8pm only permit holders and their visitors will be able to park.
Nicholas Botterill, deputy leader of the council, said: "We promised that Shepherd's Bush would not become Westfield's car park and these initial changes will be put in place before Christmas."
Reader views (4)
"We promised that Shepherd's Bush would not become Westfield's car park and these initial changes will be put in place before Christmas." So, 8 weeks of misery for the locals because LBH&F were either incompetent or conniving - didn't they notice this great big shopping centre being built in their tiny borough?
- Austen, London, 07/11/2008 12:13
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H + F as usual underestimated the problem of the attraction of Westfield and should have immediately put in place car parking restrictions in the immediate area. Cars are driving up and down cul de sacs to find parking spaces where a sign should have been put up stating, cul de sac/residents parking only. Obviously backlog of traffic coming off the motorway even the car park of westfields cannot cope with its 4,500 spaces, but why did this massive development planners not foresee this and also the council. H +F seem to be more worried in trying to force down local council workers conditions of work in a shocking manner than looking after their residents. humbug local government nonsense
- James Quinn, London, 07/11/2008 11:54
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The infrastructure thinking behind the Westfield project has been extremely ropey from the start. More work has gone into making it a destination, than on how people will get there. Yes, an additional tube station has been built and a couple of others prettified, but it was unrealistic to believe that people would rely heavily on public transport to get there. As it is, the roads around Shepherds Bush Green and those feeding it from Hammersmith, already suffer from very high levels of congestion, which impact bus services, so from this perspective, the opening of the Centre has been an absolute disaster. And with parking priced at £3+ per hour, Centre management have only succeeded in shifting the problem out of their 4500 parking places into the neighbouring streets.
- Matthew, london, 07/11/2008 10:41
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Out of interest, where do visitors to small local shops go to park, away from the new behemoth? Certainly it costs a little to enforce short stay parking. But sure now, provision for this must have been included in the £170 million transport "improvements", which must not have consisted purely of new bus routes leading directly to Westfield without stopping anywhere else?
- Reg, London, 07/11/2008 09:24
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