Dulwich Village area - CPZ Consultation

A parking zone is a network of local streets, which all come under one permit area. Residents and businesses need to buy a permit to be able to park their car on the street during the zone operating hours but may park without a permit when the zone is not in operation.

Some parking zones in the borough operate all day and some just for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

A zone with a shorter time tends to be more effective in areas where parking pressure is caused by commuters and would offer more flexibility for your visitors.

A zone with a longer time tends to be more effective in areas where parking pressure is caused by local attractions.

The map below shows the streets we are proposing to include in the Dulwich Village area CPZ. There is more detail later in the document explaining why this zone has been identified.

• Space is prioritised for local residents, businesses and their visitors.
• Reduces car use and the negative effects associated with it.
• Commuters will be discouraged from parking on your street during the operating hours.
• Improved access for emergency services and refuse vehicles.
• The council, through our Streets for People strategy, would like to reduce the dominance of cars on our roads and free them up for other uses such as play, walking, cycling. We want to make our streets safer, increase the number of trees on our streets, and improve air quality. These are all things residents have told us they want.

• Those entitled to a permit must obtain it and pay to park in the zone. This payment funds the administration and enforcement of parking controls and any surplus must legally be spent on transport related activities, such as new crossing points, improved safety schemes.
• Parking can be displaced into nearby uncontrolled roads.
• Street signs and lines.
• Visitors to properties within the zone must also have a permit to park during the operational period.

The council’s current permit costs for the average ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) compliant vehicle is £4.32 per week. Hybrid vehicles cost £2.88 and electric vehicles cost £1.44 per week.

Disabled badge holders’ permits cost 57p per week with free parking for Blue Badge holders in Shared Use Bays.

Visitor permit prices vary with full details on our website. Outside of the permit operating hours, your visitors may park for free.

For businesses, we can explore putting in short stay free bays to accommodate customers. When the permit scheme is not in operation, some free parking may be available.

Please note that parking/permit charges are subject to review and annual inflation.

The cost of the permit is used to fund the cost of implementing, administering and maintaining the CPZ.  If there is any surplus income it will be used within the legal ring-fence for parking income under section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. For example, it could be used for important things we all rely on, such as safer crossings and pavement maintenance.

Southwark Council carried out a parking consultation between July and September 2023, seeking views on a controlled parking zone in the Dulwich Village area. We had over 500 responses to the consultation. 

We have now analysed the feedback you gave us, alongside other local data such as parking stress information, collision data and previous requests from people living or working in the area. So, we are now proposing a slightly smaller permit zone (see map) and asking residents what works best for you, for example the hours and days of operation, the location and types of bays, and whether you need parking for visitors or customers.

We’ve reduced the size of the area of the proposed Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) to correspond to where local support has been indicated by our data. We believe that our proposed CPZ will benefit the area and reduce parking pressure.  As such, we are now consulting you on this fresh proposal, with a detailed design for the new area, so you can see what a parking zone would look like on your street and let us know whether you believe parking restrictions would be beneficial in the area.

During the previous consultation, we asked you what your preferred operational days and hours for a CPZ were and the most popular response was Monday to Friday, four hours a day (11am to 3pm). We have asked this question again and including an additional two-hour option to establish those times the residents in the area and other respondents would prefer. 

As well as you having your say on the principle of whether the zone goes in, this is another opportunity to view our detailed maps and give your thoughts on the zone layout and influence the position of bays, the type of bay and the location of double yellow lines. If it is decided to proceed with the proposal, we will then consider these comments during any final designs. Even if you have selected that you do not want a CPZ, please respond to this section of the survey so that your views are still considered. We will not consider a response in this situation to mean you are in favour of parking restrictions.

Please note that no permit parking or other controls can be made by the council on private roads/drives within the scheme boundary, below is a list of named private roads which are excluded from the proposals. More details can be found in the detailed maps provided as part of our online consultation form:

• Courtmead Close
• Delawyk Crescent
• Donne Court
• Cobb Court
• Court lane Gardens
• Great Spilmans

Should a CPZ be implemented in neighbouring roads, residents of private roads within the CPZ area would still be able to purchase a permit to allow them to park in a controlled area.

Local requests

We log any requests that come in for parking restrictions in any area. Here are two examples of recent requests:

“There is a lack of available parking, with too many cars on the road and people unwilling to walk”

“The road gets busy on weekends and most evenings meaning that we cannot park near our house, sometimes having to park on the next street.”

The green dots on the map below indicate where we have received requests for parking restrictions:

We have also received some written contact expressing opposition to the introduction of further car parking control. 

What evidence do you have for proposing a controlled parking zone in this area?

Collision data 2016 to 2022:

Any reported collisions are logged by the council and Transport for London to understand where potential interventions are required.  Collisions at junctions are more likely when excess parking reduces visibility.  This will be assessed in detail as part of the consultation outcome and final detailed design should the CPZ proceed to implementation.   

Most collisions in the Dulwich Village consultation area are on Dulwich Village, East Dulwich Grove and Lordship Lane and most of these are at junctions.  

Parking Pressure Data:

We have carried out parking stress surveys across all unrestricted roads (roads that do not have any parking controls on them) in the borough. The map below shows your neighbourhood categorised into three categories. Red means that 80% or more of the parking spaces were in use, orange means that 60% were, and green means less than 60% were. This means that for the red roads, 8 out of 10 parking bays are occupied, which could mean that you may have to drive further to find parking near your home or even park in a neighbouring road. 

Residents tell us that there are significant issues associated with the school run in the north east of the zone. For this reason, there may be a case for longer hours of operation here than elsewhere in the proposed zone. Therefore, we have included an option in the consultation for this section to be included in the existing East Dulwich CPZ, which operates Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6.30pm, instead of the proposed Dulwich Village zone, which may have shorter hours.

We are aware that Lambeth Council have recently implemented a controlled parking zone in Tulse Hill, and will be consulting on a further scheme in West Dulwich. Both areas border our borough and have the potential of displacing parking on to streets in Southwark Borough.

What do people think in areas where we’ve already done this?

We understand that you may have concerns about living in a controlled parking zone, particularly if you own a car or have regular visitors that travel by car. It is helpful to remember that most areas of the borough, including some in Dulwich Village Ward, already have controlled parking and people quickly adapt to the change. We offer a range of different permits, which can accommodate your visitors, tradespeople and those who have a Blue Badge.

We have received many positive comments from residents after parking zones have been implemented, some of whom were initially anxious about the plans. Comments from Camberwell residents include:

"I am writing to say how delighted we are with the controlled parking zone (CPZ), and to apologise for the resistance to your plan from everyone in this house. It’s literally transformed the street – we very seldom use the car but when we do, we can park without any difficulty at all, and the street is now an open and peaceful place to live.”

"The environmental improvement is huge and an important boost to city living. Now that we have the CPZ in operation our streetscape has been transformed. We can park without difficulty and the appearance of the area has changed beyond recognition.”

However, we acknowledge that the implementation of controlled parking zones can cause displacement to surrounding roads as demonstrated by the comments received following the recent implementation of a zone further north in the borough:

“Walking around the newly implemented parking zone, there are now empty bays, yet the surrounding roads are jam packed with cars that are left there all week, as it is local residents who have been forced to move their cars. I have just had to park my car some way off from my flat and watched at least 4 cars crawling around looking for a space causing more pollution than normal.”