Policing the St. Philomena’s School Car Boot Fairs noise and disturbance. Local councillors ask the council officers to investigate…

Your local councillors have taken up residents’ complaints about the perennial St. Philomena’s School Car Boot Fairs which occur about 5 times a year. We have asked the appropriate Council department to talk to St. Philomena’s school again about their car boot sales – in particular this coming Sunday’s event (13th October) – as local residents’ patience is wearing thin in regard to very early morning noise and disturbance?

The real issue for local people and ourselves as councillors is the start time.  The school gates open to sellers at 6.30am, which means that cars and vans generally start arriving and queuing from 5.30am onwards on a Sunday, with all the noise, radios, shouting and engine noise this entails, not to speak of car horns being used.
 
Local residents are obviously in a built-up residential area, not a field remote from residences, but this does not appear to have been considered by the school.  Ideally we would all like to see a later start time of say 8am entry to sellers – this would give us a least the opportunity of some peace for local residents so early on Sundays. 

However, we would remind everyone that these car boot fairs are not limited by any planning consent or planning conditions, as none are required by planning law which is laid down by Parliament and not by Sutton Council.
 
One of the three of us lives about one quarter of a mile down the road from this event and also gets such disturbances, and so we can well understand residents’ frustrations. Parking and congestion is also very bad in the area whenever these events take place.
 
We would hope that the school will be more helpful, sympathetic and community minded towards local residents’ concerns. We are seeking council officers’ help in persuading the school to police its parking, and prevent noise and disturbance occurring would help. More in a future posting…

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