North Finchley traders vent their frustrations to London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore

1:37pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Emma Innes

Traders in North Finchley were given the opportunity to vent their frustrations to a London Assembly member this morning.

Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden, Andrew Dismore, visited the High Road to talk to business owners about the issues facing the high street.

Mr Dismore was shown around the High Road by Helen Michael, the owner of Cafe Buzz, who introduced him to a number of struggling business people.

All of the traders and shoppers that Mr Dismore spoke to complained about the parking situation in the area.

They told the former Hendon MP that high parking charges, and Pay-by-Phone parking, are killing their businesses.

Amar Shah, manager of Diamond Photos on the High Road, said: “The parking signs are being vandalised because people are not happy.

“My shop is not busy most days. Why would people pay £1.20 to park when all they want is 10p worth of photocopying?”

Carolina Perez, shop assistant at Teeny and Weeny, told Mr Dismore that the situation has got so bad that her shop is closing down.

She said: “The situation is terrible and business is very bad.

“My boss is closing the shop because no one is buying anything anymore.

“People don’t come here now because parking is too difficult.”

Mr Dismore’s trip to North Finchley was made as part of an investigation the London Assembly is doing into how best to help London’s 197 local high streets.

The findings will all be put into a report which will be published in January 2013.

This report will lay out the London Assembly’s suggestions as to how local councils can help their high streets.

Mr Dismore said: “There are different problems in every high street but we are trying to find common solutions.

“We will produce suggestions based on our research and hope that the councils will adopt them.”

One example Mr Dismore explained to North Finchley’s traders came from a visit he had undertaken to Richmond.

He told the business owners that in Richmond residents are given cards which they can insert into parking machines to get a free ticket for half an hour’s parking.

The Assembly Member explained that this scheme has been very successful and is, therefore, something that the London Assembly might suggest is rolled out across the capital.

Ms Michael said: “In principle I think this report is a lovely idea but I don’t think it will achieve anything.

“It will take too long and by the time anything happens we will have long gone out of business.

“We need a temporary solution – maybe a trial period to help us get by in the short term.”

Comments(29)

BarnetTrader says...
2:10pm Thu 20 Sep 12

Sadly the GLA have no powers over Barnet Council.

They can stamp and shout, but our right wing Darwinian councillors will not listen and couldn't care less - for them the High Streets are resources to be asset stripped like the rest of the borough.

Ms Michael is right: we need an immediate solution before more businesses close down.

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barnet head says...
9:34pm Thu 20 Sep 12

Finally someone takes an interest. Unfortunately moaning about the parking charges is the least of our problems. The signs have been out of action for nearly 7 weeks and still no one wants to shop along the high road. That's because some business's sell rubbish and the public are more careful with their money. Its up to us.

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educated says...
9:34am Fri 21 Sep 12

Why do they need special cards to insert into parking machines?

In Potters Bar you obtain a ticket from the parking machine for 30 mins free parking. If you wish to extend that to an hour you pay 20p.

That seems to be perfectly adequate.

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Fireball says...
10:08am Fri 21 Sep 12

I have lived in Finchley all my life. I used to like browsing in the local shops. However since the pakring has become so expensive I have stopped browsing. If I go to North Finchley nowadays I rush to the shops and just get essentials. I used to spend a lot more money in Finchley. Now because I have to rush quickley due to the expensive parking I spend a lot less in the shops. Now I go to Brent Cross where I park for free and spend hours browsing the shops and spending my money. I know I am not the only one that has done this. Why pay so much to park in Finchley when I can park for free in Brent Cross.

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Fireball says...
10:09am Fri 21 Sep 12

I have lived in Finchley all my life. I used to like browsing in the local shops. However since the pakring has become so expensive I have stopped browsing. If I go to North Finchley nowadays I rush to the shops and just get essentials. I used to spend a lot more money in Finchley. Now because I have to rush quickley due to the expensive parking I spend a lot less in the shops. Now I go to Brent Cross where I park for free and spend hours browsing the shops and spending my money. I know I am not the only one that has done this. Why pay so much to park in Finchley when I can park for free in Brent Cross.

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Fireball says...
10:09am Fri 21 Sep 12

I have lived in Finchley all my life. I used to like browsing in the local shops. However since the pakring has become so expensive I have stopped browsing. If I go to North Finchley nowadays I rush to the shops and just get essentials. I used to spend a lot more money in Finchley. Now because I have to rush quickley due to the expensive parking I spend a lot less in the shops. Now I go to Brent Cross where I park for free and spend hours browsing the shops and spending my money. I know I am not the only one that has done this. Why pay so much to park in Finchley when I can park for free in Brent Cross.

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Cadwallader says...
5:59pm Fri 21 Sep 12

I note that the architect of this benighted parking system Cllr Brian Coleman, who following the Assembly elections earlier this year, now holds the remit for bringing council proceedings into disrepute, has chosen to respond to criticism from Helen Michael by assaulting her in the High Road, while parked in a loading bay while he used a cash-point.

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BarnetTrader says...
6:24pm Fri 21 Sep 12

Visiting a cash-point. Cash for what? Definitely not for parking. Perhaps for a little spending spree at Scratchwood services...?


Boy, what goes around comes around - the misery this man has created. The discredited council, the trashed businesses, the broken families. Clearly he has not learned from the ballot box - I hope this proves to be his ultimate humiliation.

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Methodman says...
6:40pm Fri 21 Sep 12

I guess Brian Coleman has to watch the pennies these days as he has no access to the GLA taxi account any more.
I do hope he does not get sent to jail,as he might enjoy it.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
7:14pm Fri 21 Sep 12

Hmmm, interesting. So how come other high streets in Barnet are doing relatively better than N.Finchley and not blaming parking, which lets face it is pittance compared to that sparkly dress, large coffee and sandwich or BigMac?! I dont think the local Finchey residents are thinking, hmmm, its a couple of quid to park locally so lets drive all the way to BX, fight the crowds and shop in chain stores! BX and Finchley are tow different niches and I hear BX takings are down too because, guess what, we're in a recession! Fools.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
7:14pm Fri 21 Sep 12

Hmmm, interesting. So how come other high streets in Barnet are doing relatively better than N.Finchley and not blaming parking, which lets face it is pittance compared to that sparkly dress, large coffee and sandwich or BigMac?! I dont think the local Finchey residents are thinking, hmmm, its a couple of quid to park locally so lets drive all the way to BX, fight the crowds and shop in chain stores! BX and Finchley are tow different niches and I hear BX takings are down too because, guess what, we're in a recession! Fools.

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Mr Reasonable says...
10:04am Sat 22 Sep 12

Mr Unreasonable, take a look at Whetstone which seems to be doing well just a mile up the road from North Finchley and guess what, parking is free. Yes FREE. I wonder why that might be? Perhaps its proximity to Totteridge ward.

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BarnetTrader says...
11:41am Sat 22 Sep 12

Trade in High Barnet has been decimated. There have been so many ruined businesses since last November. Traders are clinging on by their fingernails desperate for change in the parking policies of this wretched council. Coleman's arrest has been the first little bit of cheer in almost over a year.

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Mike NW7 says...
1:10pm Sat 22 Sep 12

Think Mr Unreasonable is just posting propaganda as I know from many of the Mill Hill traders I speak to that they are suffering under the parking regime too.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
8:27am Sun 23 Sep 12

Oh and the recession has nothing to do with it?!!

And why Mr Reasonable is obsessed with Tory wards and conspiracy is a childish point as there are Tory wards which have also been subject to the new parking charges and system.

Everyone's always looking for someone to blame these days and I seriously don't think you can blame an automated payment service and charges which are still cheap in the scale of things for the effects of recession.

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Mike NW7 says...
8:48am Sun 23 Sep 12

Enfield typically charge £1 or so an hour. Haringey £1.20 an hour. Harrow £1.20 an hour.

Barnet £2 per hour or free if you are a councillor who chooses to take free parking.

Utter nonsense to suggest that Barnet parking is cheap in the "scale of things". I'd get the weights and measures team to check your scales before Barnet sell them off to the highest bidder and you end up dealing with a call centre in Bangalore rather than a human being employed locally.

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educated says...
10:36am Sun 23 Sep 12

Mike NW7 wrote:
Enfield typically charge £1 or so an hour. Haringey £1.20 an hour. Harrow £1.20 an hour.

Barnet £2 per hour or free if you are a councillor who chooses to take free parking.

Utter nonsense to suggest that Barnet parking is cheap in the "scale of things". I'd get the weights and measures team to check your scales before Barnet sell them off to the highest bidder and you end up dealing with a call centre in Bangalore rather than a human being employed locally.
Mike NW7 wrote:
Enfield typically charge £1 or so an hour. Haringey £1.20 an hour. Harrow £1.20 an hour. Barnet £2 per hour or free if you are a councillor who chooses to take free parking


As I said above, Potters Bar is free for 30 mins, and 20p for an hour.

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Mr Reasonable says...
2:41pm Sun 23 Sep 12

Dear Unreasonable, I have never been 'obsessed' with anything in my life and certainly not Tory Wards!

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barnet head says...
6:13pm Sun 23 Sep 12

North Finchley has been dying for three years, charity shops, estate agents and chain stores for coffee and don't get me started on the pound shops and the awful Tally Ho discount store. What a waste of time. If Parking was free i still wouldn't bother. Take a proper look, what is there to buy that you actually keep and use, Furniture? electrical equipment? Its rubbish and the traders need to take a look at the prices before blaming us for not coming out to shop.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
9:25pm Mon 24 Sep 12

80p more to park than other boroughs, 80p?! 80p is making people drive to brent x or potters bar?!! You guys are not on this planet!! Come on! jeez!

And I best trade hasn't gone down at all in brent x or potters has it?!! crikey you lot are unreal.

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Mr Reasonable says...
8:15am Tue 25 Sep 12

Dear Unreasonable, As someone who does price point analysis for a number of organisations using well established research methodologies I can tell you that 80p can make a surprising difference to some people's decisions. The people who set the parking charges stuck their finger in the air and guessed what they thought people would accept and they got it wrong. A professional organisation would have carried out the research and got it right first time.

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Mike NW7 says...
9:41am Tue 25 Sep 12

And of course Unreasonable has also forgotten the 20p "service charge" so Barnet is usually £1 more or double other local boroughs parking charges for one hour's parking.

Unreasonale obviously doesn't care about spending his money unwisely but the rest of us do.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
6:10pm Tue 25 Sep 12

What a load of cobblers, speak to the man in the street and he won't care about 80p difference, convenience rules and driving to brent x is not convenient. You lot are looking for excuses.

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
6:10pm Tue 25 Sep 12

What a load of cobblers, speak to the man in the street and he won't care about 80p difference, convenience rules and driving to brent x is not convenient. You lot are looking for excuses.

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Mike NW7 says...
6:47pm Tue 25 Sep 12

I presume Unreasonable's man in the street was spotted in The Bishop's Avenue and was interviewed by you from your chauffeur-driven car!

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educated says...
6:49pm Tue 25 Sep 12

I am a man in the street, and I won't pay Barnet's high charges. For a little bit of inconvenience I will park a little way away from where I want to be.

Mr U are you aware of what percentage of pensioners have mobile phones to call, and how many of the general public (including visitors to the area) know where you can purchase the scratch cards? There are never any signs pointing to the nearest shop.

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Richard Logue says...
9:18pm Tue 25 Sep 12

Well a fool and his money are easily parted!

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Mr unreasonable and always looking for fault says...
5:44pm Wed 26 Sep 12

The traders are missing a trick, why don they sell on the parking vouchers and make a little profit, attracting footfall.....no because they would hate to rid themselves of someone to blame!

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Rog T says...
11:01am Thu 27 Sep 12

Don't feed the trolls, it's clear that Mr U doesn't like plebs.

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