Nunhead 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 Nunhead 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.
• Commuters will be discouraged from parking on your street during the operating hours.
• Improved access for emergency services and refuse vehicles.
• Through the planning process, residents in newly built developments may be prevented from applying for parking permits to avoid additional parking stress in the area as necessary.
• Reduces the number of cars parked on your street and improves air quality.
• 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 holder’s 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 April and May 2023, seeking views on a much larger controlled parking zone in the Nunhead area. We had over 1300 responses to the consultation. Most comments received indicated that they were against the proposal to implement the larger permit zone.

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 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 are also asking whether you want controlled parking on your street.

We’ve reduced the size of the area of the proposed Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) to correspond to where parking pressure and 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, two hours a day (1pm to 3pm). We have asked this question again to establish that these times are the times the residents in Nunhead 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.

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:
• Barton Close
• Candle Grove
• Galatea Square
• Grimwade Close
• Linacre Close
• Manaton Close (partial)
• Monteagle Way (partial)
• Nunhead Crescent

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.

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

Whilst the road in blue, Nunhead Lane/Evelina Road, does not show parking pressure, the surrounding roads do as they are covered by existing restrictions in the form of Double Yellow Lines or restricted bays. Therefore, we have included this in the consultation as should the surrounding roads become controlled it is likely the displacement of traffic will have a negative impact on the parking facilities currently available.

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 Nunhead consultation area are on Nunhead Lane and Evelina Road. Most of these are at junctions.

Local requests
We log any requests that come in for parking restrictions in any area. Here are two examples of recent requests:
“ There are too many cars and vans parking on the road by people from outside the area which mean that as a disabled person I can’t park near my home.”

“ 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 yellow dots on the map below indicate where we have received requests for parking restrictions:

What do people think in areas where we’ve already done this?
We understand that you may have concerns about living in a parking zone, particularly if you own a car or have regular visitors that travel by car. 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."