• ON March 22 and 23 Camden Council issued the majority of cars on Chetwynd Road with penalty charge notices, PCNs – (15 PCNs were visible at the time) – for having their wheels over the parking line.

Chetwynd Road has very specific parking arrangements. Half of the pavement is given over to parking bays due to the narrow width of the road, and the fact that two-way traffic is allowed down it.

It has always been an inadequate situation and one that car owners on the street have had to live with. But never before have they been penalised en masse, and without warning, in this way.

The residents had assumed, with justification, that dispensation was offered to account for the very specific circumstances we find ourselves in.

The issues around Chetwynd Road’s traffic problems are well documented and yet have never been addressed by Camden Council. We are the most polluted residential road in Camden, with levels consistently exceeding World Health Organisation target limits.

Commuters use the road as a rat-run when driving into central London and Hampstead, resulting in traffic jams along the entire street at rush hour, stretching from Highgate Road, all the way up to Dartmouth Park Hill.

At other times, many drivers coming down the narrow road are well in excess of the speed limit. Car owners have little choice other than to park closer to the houses than the lines allow for. Cars are routinely crashed into, scraped and scratched, pushing insurance premiums higher and higher.

If you look along the street, almost every car has some sort of damage. The space provided for parking is simply not adequate and this is why cars routinely have to park closer to the houses.

We are mindful of what the restrictions are in place for, that is, to ensure that there is adequate pavement space for passing wheelchairs and pushchairs; and it is clear from the warden’s photos that there was more than enough space left between cars and the walls.

It has long been evident that Chetwynd Road is completely unsuitable for two-way traffic. If it were made into a one-way road, then cars would be able to park on the road, and traffic would be dramatically reduced. There would be no issues around impeded pavements.

The sudden issuing of fines is an outrageous way to treat residents who have long complained about the parking provisions on Chetwynd Road and the inaction from the council on the traffic and pollution issues.

While we have clearly muddled along with an implicit understanding, it is galling for that understanding to suddenly disappear.

Should Camden feel strongly that the pavements are being encroached on then they should engage with the community rather than turn to the blunt and unfair tool of PCNs.

KELLEY IRELAND
Chetwynd Road, NW5