Covent Garden London
The heart of London's West End
Parking in Covent Garden
'Residents parking in Camden zone CA-C' continues to be an exciting, if sometimes frustrating, game. Around 450 players each pay £82 to enter every year, working, amazingly, with just 220 bays to stay in the game.
This year the 'Survivor' version has evolved - in response, perhaps, to the need for more determination and perseverance among players.
The Endell Street hospital redevelopment site could have become an early graveyard on 'CA-C Survivor Island'. The first challenge was the elimination of 17 bays around it in Summer 2000. But fast work by Camden's contract and highways managers at the time provided a team of substitutes, gathered from places as far apart as Shelton Street and Grape Street, helping nearby residents to survive. The new bays were, in turn, due to have been voted off by February 2002. However a last-minute reprieve has now been given until August 2003. Some still fail challenges, such as recent suspensions due to Macklin Street improvements, or due to less welcome ad-hoc suspensions by private companies.
But most residents and bays are now back in the game.
Unwelcome gatecrashers entered the CA-C island on fraudulent permits during 2001. But their numbers are up, and several have already been forced to leave.
Please report any suspected fraudsters to Zakia Mannan or Adrian Weatherill at Camden on 020 7974 4671 or adrian.weatherill@camden.gov.uk -they will be very pleased to hear from you.
Alternatively, email your suspicions to parking@coventgarden.org.uk and the CGCA will report them without revealing your details.
NCP took over the new 4 year contract for enforcement South of Euston Road in April 2001. Initial results are good, with some amusement too: last summer 3 ice cream vans were seen tackled in the same afternoon by one supervisor who beat them in a hide-and-seek challenge around Seven Dials. And only last month a film company planted unauthorised suspension cones on all the residents bays in Lincoln's Inn Fields; but the challenge was no match for NCP's Kenny Folami who has warned his whole team to look out for such phantom menaces and kick them straight off the island in future. Please report any enforcement problems to him on 020 7974 8117 or kenny.folami@ncp.co.uk Several resident players on the north side of the island have been tested in a prolonged challenge involving suspension of bays that they desperately need. Following terrorist attacks in New York last September, suspension signs mysteriously appeared just 3,471 miles away in the middle of London. The police, and Camden's Parking Solutions, know that it has something to do with MoD buildings nearby, but quite why residents' cars should be a defence risk nobody can explain.
Perhaps they have heard of the CGCA's new help and comments line, parking@coventgarden.org.uk - enough to strike fear into anyone unsympathetic to residents' parking interests. Please email us with any new problems or comments, and please copy us on any contact that you have with Camden, NCP etc on this subject so that we can stay informed.
Now it's time for all survivors to pour a stiff drink (bad luck to those still driving around trying to park), lie back, and anticipate another summer of heat on CA-C Survivor Island.
CCTV enforcement and congestion charging are among the new elements promised for next year's game.
Amanda Rigby
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