Secure cycle parking coming to two Charlton streets

Darryl Chamberlain
Cycle hangar in Combedale Road
A cycle hangar in Combedale Road, Greenwich

Residents in Eastcombe Avenue and Sandtoft Road are to get secure cycle parking spaces after residents asked Greenwich Council to install them.

The town hall is putting the lockable cycle hangars in place after it won £120,000 in funding from Transport for London last year. In total, 13 different locations around the borough – mostly in Greenwich itself – will get the hangars, while new cycle racks will be installed in Greenwich South Street in place of car parking.

Nine residents wrote to Greenwich Council to complain about the proposal, stating that neither they nor their neighbours cycled. Other residents complained about a lack of car parking space in general. However, the council received 28 separate requests for secure cycle parking in the area.

The hangars will take up the space of half a parking bay.

"I have just received notice of your intention to provide cycle hangers in Eastcombe Avenue, Sandtoft Road and Bramshot Avenue. I have to inform you that this is an area of terraced houses with no offstreet parking. It is sufficiently close to Westcombe Park railway station and the shops at the Royal Standard, and has no parking restrictions. This ensures that locals have increasing difficulty finding anywhere to park as any vacant spaces are quickly taken by shoppers and commuters. Many of our residents have more than one car and a lot seem daft enough to lease enormous SUVs. I am 70 and drive a tiny low emission citroen c1. If I want to go shopping, I have apoplexy every time I return and am unable to park my tiny car among the chancers who have taken spaces for their Porsche SUVs, Land Rovers and other imitation tank-like vehicles. This is the most foolish idea anyone has come up with. It reeks of neo-nazi exercise fanatics in their prime. Will these cyclists give up their leasehold SUVs in order to free up the space needed. This is a supreme example of councillors having no idea about the area they represent and being committed to politically correct trendyism and head in the clouds strategic psychosis. I insist that you scrap this silly idea immediately."
Some residents were not keen (click to expand)

The wider area may soon see more changes to car parking as the council is assessing responses to a consultation into whether parking permits should be introduced.

Work on the hangars will start as soon as possible, the council says in documents published on its website.

Residents who would like secure cycle parking on their street should contact Greenwich Council – its officers usually act when three separate households have asked for a hangar.

Another cycle hangar
Another cycle hangar in Coleraine Road, Blackheath, close to Westcombe Park station

Meanwhile, residents are still waiting to see what action Greenwich Council will take to make cycling and walking easier during the coronavirus crisis. At the weekend, council leader Danny Thorpe insisted that plans were in hand to open up streets to people on two wheels and two feet and close roads to rat-runners – however, it remains to be seen whether any of the schemes will tackle notorious trouble spots in Charlton such as Eastcombe Avenue and Victoria Way.

In addition, work on a 20mph zone through Charlton Village had begun at the start of the crisis, but stoped a few days into the lockdown.

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