Barriers Removed from Chiswick Sainsbury's Car Park
New ANPR enforcement regime means no requirement to shop in store
The barriers have been removed from Chiswick Sainsbury's car park
November 6, 2023
The barriers outside the Sainsbury’s car park on Essex Place have been removed which appears to have effectively increased the amount of free parking in Chiswick.
Previously, free parking was restricted to half an hour unless you shopped at the store, spending more than £10 and validated a voucher at the till. If you were not a customer and want to stay longer than half an hour the charge was £2 for one hour and £4 for two with a £60 charge for exceeding the time paid for.
In recent months, there had been many reports of Sainsbury’s leaving the exit barriers open and some people had ceased to bother to get parking validated. Previously, large queues sometimes developed at the exit barriers due to technical malfunctions or customers forgetting their validated ticket.
This system has been scrapped in favour of ANPR enforcement in which your car registration will be taken automatically as you enter the car park and again as you leave. If less than two hours has passed then there will be no charge but, any longer, and you will receive a demand for payment in the post from Euro Car Parks Ltd, who manage the car park on behalf of Sainsbury’s.
Legally, Euro Car Parks Ltd cannot issue fines so this is a civil debt which the company may choose to enforce through the appropriate courts.
Returns to the car park within an hour of parking there earlier in the same day will also receive a charge although Sainsbury's says if the store management is contacted in advance it may be possible to avoid a charge.
There will now only be ten minutes parking allowed outside Sainsbury’s trading hours.
Anyone who has an issue with the new parking arrangements will be referred to Euro Car Parks Ltd if they wish to make an appeal. The details of the company will be on the notice sent in the post. We asked Sainsbury’s what would happen if a customer was delayed, for instance, by unexpectedly large queues at the tills but it did not address this question in its response.
New sign indicates changed terms for parking in the Sainsbury's car park
For anyone who wishes to use the car park for longer than two hours Sainsbury's offer a limited number of spaces in the car park at a daily charge of £15.34 bookable at www.horizonspaces.co.uk.
The car park is understood to have been built on what was originally Metropolitan Open Land. It is subject to a restrictive covenant signed on 12 March 1986 which states that it can only be used for car parking purposes and no structures can be erected on it. This also requires Sainsbury’s to maintain the car park in good order and not charge more for parking than rates prevailing in nearby council owned car parking. Hounslow Council is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the covenant.
Several years ago, designs by an architectural practice employed by Sainsbury’s showed proposals for a mixed use development scheme on the site which showed tall buildings on the car park area and draft outline plans were submitted to Hounslow Council early in 2022. It is thought that Sainsbury’s believes that it could find legal grounds for setting aside the covenant if it wanted to develop the site but these proposals or any similar have not been taken forward.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
