Small shops suffer under chains and regulations

By Jes Salter

HIGH STREET shops in St Mary’s ward are being squeezed by council parking regulations and nearby supermarket chains, local businesses complained.

Russell Fulton, 52, owner of SX, a DIY shop on Essex Road, said the council has effectively forced him to close up shop.

“Since the council banned parking on the main road, I can’t even get delivery vans to stop because they’re scared they’ll get a ticket, never mind customers,” he said.

Marathon Sports, six premises down the road, has been forced to close and Mr Fulton said he will be quick to follow suit. He said: “I’d take an offer tomorrow.”

Essex Road has double red lines and Transport for London fines offenders £100 for stopping.

Only 100m away Alberto Ferrari’s Italian delicatessen cannot compete with the supermarket squeeze. After 36 years on Cross Street, he blamed the two Sainsbury’s supermarkets on Upper Street, along with Marks and Spencer, and many competing restaurants for deflecting customers’ interest from his shop.

Mr Ferrari, 74, used to form a parade with a greengrocers, butchers, bakery and fishmongers, but all have since turned into clothes shops.

He said: “In Italy, a tobacconist sells tobacco. In England the shop is a bazzar: they sell newspapers, sandwiches, butter, everything. In Sainsbury’s you can buy anything you like, but where is the distinction, where is the pride in your shop?”

Wilf Altman, ex-assistant to the chairman at Sainsbury’s, defended the rise of the chain shops.

He said: “The world has changed. More women work, they are time short.

“Would they really want to shop and face queues at the old-fashioned high street grocer, the wine merchant, the butchers, bakers and delicatessen?”

Lucy Kennedy, 22, an Islington resident, agreed with Altman. She said: “It’s a shame that businesses are being forced to close, but at the end of the day, when you get home from work, the last thing you need is queuing up in lots of different shops, and most of them aren’t open at 7pm anyway.”

Islington Council are due to publish the results of their small retailer survey by the end of the year. They asked shop owners their perceptions of council support, the accessibility of council services and what the council could do better.

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Newington Green suffers from parking restrictions

by Tom Lowe

COUNCIL parking restrictions around Newington Green may have local support for protecting resident parking and improving traffic, but community businesses claim they are suffering.

With vehicles banned from pulling up outside, customers have been deterred from visiting commercial premises around the Green, and deliveries have been thwarted by patrolling wardens charging £50 a ticket. As a result, local traders have struggled to cope.

North London Wine Cellar manager Ahraz Atif said: “It really affects business. If someone parks outside, a warden will arrive in four to five minutes – it’s that quick.

“One of us has to stand there the whole time while a delivery is made.”

He said the restrictions deterred both customers and those making deliveries.

“Some [delivery] people will only come when we have at least two people in the shop, so one can stand with the van in the parking space”, he said.

“Sometimes, say on Monday, he [a delivery man] can’t find a space and has to come back on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

But ward councillor Rhodri Jamieson-Ball, said Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs), which protect parking for residents, were a separate concern to the problems they can pose to shop owners.

With more cars than parking spaces on our roads, the Liberal Democrat called the balance between tackling traffic congestion and providing delivery access for small businesses “a juggling act”.

He said: “[It is a] difficult issue, protecting parking and businesses and not getting them mixed up. We have got to make sure there are alternatives.”

Mr Jamieson-Ball added: “I think there are two issues: shop issues and CPZ issues.

“We need more parking bays for shops.”

Ahraz, who lives in Palmers Green, is one of many running small businesses in Newington Green who live further away. But there are plenty of complaints from those who do live in the Green’s surrounds.

Granville Bourne, a resident of Mildmay Park, said: “Even down there [off the Green] you can’t park. You don’t get much benefit.

“You can see the wardens don’t use their discretion. People come to visit and can’t park anywhere.”

A council survey in January reported that 55% of the residents questioned supported the introduction of daytime CPZs, while 49% said they would like to see all-day parking controls and 29% favoured operating hours between 10am and 2pm.

But some shop owners insisted the council is not listening to calls for changes.

One man, who would only give his name as Ahmat, said: “They did a survey before the changes. Lots of people didn’t want the changes, but they made them anyway."

Council documents say CPZs are designed to give priority to suppliers of goods and services, as well as residents and visitors, but now the restrictions have started to have other implications – not only for local businesses, but about vehicle ownership.

Former Mildmay Councillor and local historian Pat Haynes was critical of CPZs, saying: “I’m glad to say I never owned a car.

“People get so worked up about it [parking restrictions].”

He said: “If the Government had more guts, they’d charge more for fuel. That’s the way to solve things.”

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Council tow truck ignores disabled badge

By Jes Salter

A DISABLED woman helplessly watched her car swinging four feet above the road today, ready to be towed away from its parking spot.

A parking attendant had not spotted the blue disabled badge on the dashboard, which entitled the driver to an extra hour of free parking.

As the blue Volkswagon was being winched onto a council tow truck, the woman’s daughter, who owned the car, sprinted out of Budgens on Upper Street to confront the parking attendant.

The young woman, who did not want to be named, said: “I’m so angry. I’ve come out to take my elderly mother shopping and she can’t walk far. I don’t know whether they work on commission, but when their job is to check for these blue badges and they miss them, it’s not acceptable.

“It should not have even escalated into an argument - he should have just apologised and put the car down.”

Katy Miller, 24, watched from the pavement. She said: “It was quite a show really. The argument lasted for about five minutes, and the car was just swinging in mid-air. The lady wasn’t giving up though, and eventually the parking warden told the guy in the truck to put it back down on the road.”

The tow truck then drove metres down the restricted parking zone and moments after the attendant wrote a ticket for the owner of a black BMW, the man tore it off his windscreen, jumped in his car and manoeuvred out of the parking space.

Miss Miller said: “It was quite dramatic for a lunch break.”

Emily Fieran-Reed, St Mary’s ward councillor, said: “Traffic wardens should be trained to have more common sense especially when dealing with disabled people. There are two traffic wardens – one for Transport for London and one contracted out by the council which causes confusion. More power should be given to the borough.”

The parking attendant said: “We get hassle everyday. Sometimes mistakes are made, but they have to take it up with the parking services, not give me abuse.”

A spokesperson from Islington Council’s parking service said: “We generally only remove vehicles from the street if they are causing an obstruction, parked in incorrect bays such as a disabled bay, parked in a bus lane, parked on zigzag lines, are persistent evaders or suspected of being stolen.”

They could not comment on specific cases, but pointed out that last month Islington council fined three men for fraudulently using the blue badges.

Owners are fined £150 to release their vehicles from the pound and every additional day costs an extra £25.

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