Parking petition in Pinner tops 1,000 signatures

Now local businesses have teamed up to launch a campaign for free parking of up to half-an-hour, to match the offer of rival shopping areas in Eastcote and Northwood.

With the petition set to be submitted later in June, and as momentum gathers pace, the newly-elected Labour administration on Harrow Council has already indicated that improving parking arrangements in the borough is a priority.

Councillor Bill Stephenson (Labour), who officially became leader of the council on Tuesday night (25), told the Observer: "Working with businesses and improving the long-term trading environment of our local shopping centres is one of the council's top priorities and this involves talking to traders about the problems they face.

"We know parking is an issue and we will be reviewing parking charges across the whole borough.

"Small businesses face other challenges too and the parking review is just part of an overall package of measures we are drawing up to help them navigate through the recession and make sure our local shopping centres emerge from it stronger than ever."

In April, Pinner and District Business Club launched their petition calling on the council to introduce a new 30-minute free parking scheme. Residents have been invited to add their names to the appeal by signing-up in local shops.

James Gibbs, joint partner of Gibbs and Gillespie estate agents in High Street, said: "The business club feel we are having a hard and unfair time at the moment anyway with supermarkets killing smaller traders, and this parking situation doesn't help.

"People who just want to pop in and buy one item, they have to pay. If they go to Eastcote instead they don't.

"We just want to be treated the same, so we have set up this campaign where we are asking people to support us and we have got hundreds of signatures already."

Mr Gibbs said the aim was to get between two and three thousand names on the petition before submitting it to the council, but said they were already well past the 1,000 mark. "We haven't set an exact date but I expect we will be submitting it in the next month," he added.

Residents who haven't yet signed the petition can find it on the counter of many of the shops in High Street and Bridge Street.