Residents block London street to stop work on controversial £650K plan to replace parking spaces with benches

On Monday, locals sealed off the road with fake crime scene tape to stop Lambeth Council employees from entering and making a start on the controversial street scheme. It was the second time in a month residents have blocked council employees from Amesbury Avenue.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Tuesday (April 22): “If this project goes ahead, my business will be completely destroyed. We have customers from the local community. How are they going to carry their items if there's no parking for vehicles?”

He added: “There's a park two streets away from here. We don't need a parklet. It will attract alcoholics. If the council wants to help, they could do lots to improve the outside lights and to do maintenance to council flats [on the street].”

Tony McDermott, a resident of the street for 40 years, claimed locals had tried to raise concerns with the council about the plans but had been met with a wall of silence.

He said: “This is going to cost £650,000. It's a lot of money to spend especially when Lambeth Council are supposed to be skint. We've been asking them from day one to communicate with us and they have turned their back on us.”

She said: “It has been sold as a scheme that will work for local businesses, but what the local businesses are saying is [that] with Lambeth's proposal they will lose trade. It's going to make it more difficult for them. They don't think they are going to survive. It will make it more difficult for them to accept deliveries. There will be less parking for customers.”

Ms Kjell Wright added: “We have tried to come up with a solution that would work better for the area. It would tick lots of Lambeth boxes as well. We want to work with the council. But if this is not settled in an amicable way, we will be out on the streets again.”

A council spokesperson added: “Local people are rightly passionate about their neighbourhoods and we have held many discussions about this improvement project. Our proposals both align with our strategic priorities and local people's feedback.

“There has been a huge amount of work completed to engage the community in the design [of] the scheme and we are confident that a positive outcome that delivers for the local area will be the end result.”