Council partly concedes, saying charges will operate on weekends

The allotments at Dukes Meadows . Picture: Google Streetview

Despite strong opposition from sports groups in Dukes Meadows and allotment holders, Hounslow Council is to press ahead with charging for parking by visitors.

The Council says that notwithstanding the objections received, the introduction of waiting and loading restrictions (‘double yellow lines’) and on and off-street parking places at
Dukes Meadows park will be progressed to implementation

However, the council said that following representations received, off-street parking in Dukes Meadows park should be subject to parking charges only on Saturdays and Sundays
between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

This is a reduction in the proposed chargeable
hours of Monday-Sunday as set out in the statutory consultation. The proposed parking charges on Sunday between the hours of 10am and 2pm for bays on Alexandra Gardens will also be progressed to implementation

Allotment holders in Dukes Meadows had opposed Hounslow Council's plan to introduce parking restrictions, saying many of its elderly members would not be able to afford the extra cost.

The Council says that the roads across the site, including Dan Mason Drive, Riverside Drive and The Promenade are long and narrow, with cars often blocking access and parked on the grass verges.

A previous pilot scheme in the Riverside Drive area was so successful that the Council decided on plans to extend parking controls to the whole site.

The introduction of parking restrictions forms part of the huge programme of planned improvements to the park, the Dukes Meadows Masterplan, which were approved in February 2018.

It involves upgrading a range of sports and leisure facilities on the site including, rugby, hockey, football, rowing, cricket, tennis and golf. The wider plans include improvements to the Dukes Meadows Bandstand and a pedestrian walkway built across the river to Barnes.

Hounslow Council had introduced 'experimental' parking restrictions in the Riverside Drive area, above, which it says was a success.

April 14, 2019