Gibson Road Car Park, Sutton

Parking spaces have continued to be easily available in Sutton town centre car parks following the closure of Brighton Road car park on 30th September. Former Brighton Road users have moved over to other car parks but there is still plenty of spare capacity.

Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of Sutton’s Environment and Neighbourhoods Committee, said: “We studied parking capacity and usage very carefully before we made the decision to close Brighton Road and were confident there was sufficient space available. We are pleased that it has started well and will continue to monitor the situation.We realise, of course, that it has been inconvenient for some drivers and we are grateful for their willingness to change their routines.”

Opening hours at Gibson Road car park have been extended to 6am-11.30pm to help drivers and, again, this has proved sufficient to meet the need of commuters for an earlier opening and later closing time. Although some people were concerned that the closure may stimulate extra demand for on-street parking, this has not been the case. Nor have there been problems with long queues of cars waiting to get into the car parks or any unusual issues with traffic flow through the borough.

Jill added: “We are not complacent and council parking staff will continue to monitor the impact in the coming weeks and months, but thus far we are very pleased with how the closure has been managed.”