Residents block London street to stop controversial £650,000 plan to replace parking spaces with benches
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/streatham-amesbury-avenue-parking-spaces-benches-protest-b1223788.html
Posted by BestButtons
Residents block London street to stop controversial £650,000 plan to replace parking spaces with benches
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/streatham-amesbury-avenue-parking-spaces-benches-protest-b1223788.html
Posted by BestButtons
23 Comments
> Residents and businesses on Amesbury Avenue in Streatham fear the package of proposed changes to their street will ruin local shops and make the area a magnet for antisocial behaviour.
It’s unfortunate that this is likely a valid concern.
Sound like valid concerns really..
Parking spaces are much more useful in that location, than benches that no one will probably use
They hate benches and yet they are quite clearly sitting down in that picture the wee hypocrites.
Its people like this who made the pedestrianisation of Norwich City centre such a struggle.
They look like the type of person who would have called for XR to be hung from the nearest lamppost for having the nerve to block traffic.
OP aside, Amesbury Avenue in Streatham has some of the nicest brick houses in all of the UK imo.
If the residents are against it, who asked for it? Didn’t the council ask the residents?
Is this the same council?
“The Ferndale LTN was introduced as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic to limit motor vehicle traffic.
However, the judge ruled that the borough’s six LTNs were a ‘a genuine experiment’ in response to the pandemic following guidance from the Department of Transport encouraging councils to take ‘radical and almost immediate measures’ to promote active travel.”
[https://www.transport-network.co.uk/Council-to-make-controversial-LTN-permanent/17777](https://www.transport-network.co.uk/Council-to-make-controversial-LTN-permanent/17777)
They will, of course, face lengthy jail sentences for causing public nuisance.
I’m not even against putting benches in, bit 650,000 for some seats is clearly a sign of enormous corruption and wasting taxpayers money.
Mayhaps then the local council could hold a referendum, simple yes/no question “do you want benches?”. Majority rules. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, instead of this… difficult difficult… um… lemon difficult.
So blocking roads for this stupid reason is okay, but if you do it for environmental reasons you’ll get clapped up or assaulted, and then the papers will run smarmy articles about how much you deserved it.
Where the fuck do they pull these figures from. 650k for a parking spaces
So… blocking carriageways only an acceptable form of protest if you agree with them?
The pedestrianisation of Orford road in Walthamstow had a vocal minority protest it. Similar points were raised. It has been more than 5 years since they did it and the results speak for themselves.
That minority was dead wrong.
It has been hugely beneficial to the community. None of the fears they raised have come true. I can’t even imagine going back to the way it was. It is SO much better.
I simply do not have time for protests that revolve around increasing or keeping car usage. They are proven wrong over and over again. The evidence does not back them up. Best to ignore their ignorance.
Four ancient people who won’t even be legal to drive much longer?
Here’s a link to the proposed improvements which include such horrors as bike parking, benches, greenery, and no less than 6 loading bays for cars:
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-09/ref%2097-drawing.pdf
Funny how local councils too skint to care about their citizens always seem to find enough money to make life miserable for them
So they blocked access to parking spaces by.. sitting? And the council wants to make it easier? If they’re worried about antisocial behaviour, then maybe the street needs to do a little better in stewarding the behaviour they want to see in the world
High streets are an inconvenient place to shop. It’s cheaper to shop online and takes less time. So the only way to make good use of the space is to make it more enjoyable to be there.
Make it nice place to sit and eat, get lunch, meet a friend etc. and make it accessible.
No one wants to spend time in a noisy dirty high street
I work in Lambeth and there are crackheads aplenty, I can assure you whether there’s a bench there or not makes no odds to them. This is pretty NIMBYish, especially when the council has committed to loads of climate pledges. God forbid we try and make the place nice to sit outdoors.
>Berhe Tsegay, who runs a launderette on the street, said reducing the amount of parking for customers on Amesbury Avenue would ‘destroy’ his business.
So he’s getting a significant portion of his business from people who don’t live within walking distance and don’t own a washing machine, but do own a car? Not saying it’s false, but that’s definitely pretty strange.
No, no, no, remember, you can’t block traffic.
Throw them all in jail.
Oh that’s unfair? Really. How interesting
lol why anyone in their right mind would want to sit outside on Amesbury Avenue is beyond me. It’s a shithole.
I imagine most of the people on this sub have never been to Streatham, let alone that particular street. The whole area is mostly grim and run down. It’s a street of flats/bed sits with some proeprly grim housing on it. All this will do is attract more shit.