Covent Garden London
The heart of London's West End
Parking in Covent Garden
Regular readers of this slot will remember that 'Residents parking in Camden-C zone' is an exciting, round-the clock game for about 450 players. Every year, each player pays to enter the game and is given a resident parking permit as his unique playing piece.
Last year, we announced the Millennium 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' version of the game, but during 2000/01 it was bound to be superseded by the more cerebral 'Weakest Link' edition. The new rules allow developers and utility companies to team together to vote off residents' bays in their favourite streets as never before. The unfortunate victims see their road names held aloft on orange suspension notices, and they must humbly bow-out for an increasingly long time.
We interviewed various bays after their elimination. One said: "I have been a prime bay in Endell Street for years - a favourite of residents living everywhere from Drury Lane to Seven Dials. But I just couldn't compete with the charisma of those rocking Hospi+al redevelopment people. The building is gutted, and I feel the same."
Another, from Shelton Street, said: "Over the last four years I have been dug up, or suspended due to digging, at least 10 times. I survived the great fire of 1999 with only demolition merchants' trucks and skips squatting on me. But no one ever managed to take me out for more than a few weeks - until now. I must have lost my nerve, because they just suspended me for two months for no reason. I've been robbed!"
To speed up the game, contestant bays can be eliminated not just one by one, but in whole rows. The challenge for our players is, of course, that no matter how many bays are taken out, there are still as many residents vehicles needing to find spaces.
An impossible situation is relieved by the valiant efforts of Camden's contract management team who have been very creative in bringing in new, temporary bays to replace the casualties. We lost three bays on Endell Street, four on Betterton Street and nine on Shorts Gardens for two years. But yellow lines and pay/display bays from Grape Street to Macklin Street have been marshalled into service for the duration. In an even more revolutionary move, seven bays in Shelton Street disappeared one night under an orange sign, only to be supplanted two days later by former double yellow lines further down the street - under a defiant, white laminated banner allowing dispensation to residents.
Keely Woods has been the hard-working and highly effective team leader at Camden for the last couple of years. We are sad to see her go and wish her the best in pastures (or tarmac expanses) new. Her excellent assistant, Nalita Narain holds the fort until a replacement arrives, and Ann Cunningham is in overall charge for now.
Since the game has been getting a bit out of hand, Camden is looking at ways in which it can regulate the suspension of bays a little more - a move that we welcome. This, together with the 'clear zones' experiment promising to limit through traffic to Seven Dials, may beget a more relaxed version of the game next year - though not, we suspect, quite the 'Bowling green' edition.
Amanda Rigby
Covent Garden Community Association Annual Report 2000-2001
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