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Lido car park 'would be unsafe'
PLANS to build a new car park at Ruislip Lido have drawn fierce opposition this week, with 850 people signing a petition against the proposal.
Hillingdon Council has submitted the application to construct a tarmac car park of up to 160 spaces on land adjacent to the Willow Lawn and Lakeside railway station, as part of their ã1.5million Lido improvement programme.
But The Friends of Ruislip Lido said the proposal would be unsafe and make the traffic problems at the site during peak times worse, not better.
Over four days last week the Friends were at the Lido with a petition, "opposed to the car park within the environment of Ruislip Lido", that received a significant response.
Vicky Brownlee, Friends chair, told the Gazette: "We canvassed people coming out of the Lido and nearly everyone signed the petition.
"Safety is the overwhelming objection we have to this plan. The bottom of Reservoir Road already has buses turning, the current car park and people crossing the road at the same time.
"Allowing access to another car park would only make it more congested and more dangerous."
The council want vehicles to access its new car park via the public path leading from Reservoir Road to the railway station. The path also leads to Willow Lawn, often used for children's activities and events such as the annual Woodland Festival.
The planning submission states: "It is considered that the existing woodland and scrub offer limited ecological value and the habitat types are represented elsewhere within the Lido.
"The proposed car park will cover most of this area with the exception of a small band of herbaceous growth adjacent to the railway fence line and the area to the north containing the best of the oaks."
The planners concede that the new car park would be sited within the Lido's floodplain. Their flood risk assessment states: "Mitigation is proposed by creating a compensatory floodplain area in another part of the Ruislip Lido.
"This will involve re-contouring land equivalent to the area of the car park."
The council have said a second car park is needed to prevent vehicles parking on nearby residential roads and to accommodate the current and future needs of the Lido as "one of Hillingdon's largest visitor attractions".
But the Friends argue that the Lido is already at capacity in summer and the focus should be on attracting more visitors at other times of year.
Ms Brownlee continued: "Why not use this money to develop the use of this site for 12 months of the year. This car park would only be needed for eight weeks, the rest of the time it will be disused.
"The Lido is already at capacity at those times. We want consistent, responsible use of the Lido."
Instead of the car park, the Friends suggest a new bus service or park-and-ride system instead, making use of existing car parks in the borough that lie empty at weekends.
Although the proposed site area is described by the council as "rough grass and semi-natural woodland", Ms Brownlee said it was currently used for picnics and children playing ball games, as well as grazing deer.
The council's application will be considered by planning officers over the next few weeks before being put to a vote of the North Planning Committee on a date yet to be decided.
The Friends of Ruislip Lido website, has more information on how residents can submit their views on the plans.
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I think it is wrong to re-develop this part of the Ruislip Lido site as a car-park.
1. Vehicle and Pedestrian Access â the application form states that âÂÂnew or altered vehicle and pedestrian accessâ does not form part of the application. (Section 6 of planning application form). This is plainly incorrect and thus the application form constitutes a totally invalid and deceptive request. It must be refused on this basis alone.
2. Cars â It is inappropriate to boost and reward increased car use in Hillingdon; a large car park will GENERATE additional traffic, journeys and pollution. It would be more in keeping with LBHâÂÂs environmental policies to further promote public transport, walking and cycling to the Lido.
3. Parking â there is no justification for the various statements that antisocial parking in Reservoir Road and Lakeside Estate will be reduced. It is true that such antisocial parking takes place today, but this is mostly for the Waters Edge Public House and various local builders and businesses in and around Reservoir Road â additional car parking inside the Lido will not reduce this. No parking or traffic survey has been done to justify the claim that additional car parks will reduce antisocial parking in this area.
4. Safety â since âÂÂno altered pedestrian access or changes to rights of way in envisaged âÂÂ(as per section 6), I must assume that pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchairs will be asked to share the access road with vehicles. This is manifestly unsafe and a large degradation of the existing pedestrian path around the Lido.
5. The Larger Picture â it is known that LBH have larger plans to develop the Ruislip Lido â it is not appropriate to approve this car park now when the bulk of the plans for further development are not in the public domain. What is the purpose and design of the car park in the context of a larger Lido redevelopment? This âÂÂsalami slicingâ of a controversial request is undemocratic and will lead to future challenges over the development. We need to see an outline planning request for the WHOLE Lido development before the car park application could be considered.