Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton

Your local councillors often get asked about a Controlled Parking Zone and indeed such a proposal was consulted upon and substantially rejected by residents in Carshalton Central ward, in certain parts, in recent years in the vicinity of both Carshalton Station and Carshalton Beeches Station both of which adjoin our ward/neighbourhood.

Hamish attended as chair of the Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee, Thursday evening’s meeting of the neighbouring South Sutton, Cheam and Belmont Local Committee (23rd February) where there was discussion of proposals for parking schemes (yellow lining on the roads to prevent parking at certain times) in a number of roads in the vicinity of the Royal Marsden Hospital, including some roads adjacent to Carshalton South & Clockhouse Ward in and around The Warren, Pine Walk and so on. 

There is no controlled parking zone yet in any of Carshalton Central ward nor are there any proposals or imminent plans for some.  The meeting demonstrated to those dozens of residents and councillors present how hard it was and long it took to gather consensus from large number of interested local residents about how to solve parking problems over a wide area.

There was a long discussion about the origin of these proposals and their likely impact. Cllr. Richard Clifton, a Lib Dem councillor for the neighbouring Sutton South ward, who spoke well at the meeting, summed up the issues as follows.

“This scheme has been under consideration for about five years. It arises from developments at the Royal Marsden Hospital that had the effect of putting pressure on parking in neighbouring roads. It was agreed, some years ago, to fund, from Section 106 money provided by the Marsden (so the cost is not a charge on Sutton Council-tax payers), consultation with local residents on parking schemes. The original proposals, for roads close to the Royal Marsden Hospital, would have led to some displacement of parking into roads further afield and the consultation was stopped, then resumed over a wider area. Eventually much more of the area was included in the consultation.  The decision taken at the Local Committee on 23 February was to have a further round of consultation in these roads.”