Street benches will do us no favours in our street, say Streatham protestors

Angry residents opposed to a £650,000 plan to replace parking spaces with seating down their street have blocked access to council workers set to start on the controversial project.

Local businesses and residents on Amesbury Avenue in Streatham fear the package of proposed changes to their street will ruin local shops and make the area a magnet for antisocial behaviour.

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.

Berhe Tsegay, who runs a laundrette on the street, said reducing the amount of parking for customers on Amesbury Avenue would ‘destroy’ his business.

He said: “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?”

The 59-year-old said plans to replace some parking spots with planters and seating, known as ‘parklets’, were unnecessary. 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.”

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.”

The 62-year-old said he thought the proposed parklet would attract alcoholics, while leaving customers of businesses on the road with nowhere to park.

Lambeth council said that the proposed scheme would turn the ‘neglected shopping parade’ into a ‘better place to spend time and do business’. It added that it had spent five years consulting residents on potential changes to Amesbury Avenue.

But Petra Kjell Wright, a resident on the street, said the Labour-run council’s claims to have created plans informed by locals’ wants and needs didn’t add up.

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 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 spokesman 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 and we are confident that a positive outcome that delivers for the local area will be the end result.”

Pictured top: Residents from Amesbury Avenue in Streatham, protesting yesterday (Picture: LDRS/Robert Firth)