RESIDENTS living near Heathrow airport say they’re fed up with some parking firms dumping cars on their streets for weeks at a time.
The “wild west” car parking chaos caused by some meet-and-greet companies at London’s main airport is to be tackled by a local authority after villagers said it was making their lives hell.
2
Neighbours in villages around Heathrow have complained that some of the parking firms are avoiding paying fees at the airport by taking holidaymakers’ cars and driving them from the airport to quiet suburbs where they park the vehicles outside homes for up to two or three weeks at a time.
People living in Chertsey, Surrey, and Colnbrook, Berkshire, have complained bitterly about the lawful parking which takes up spaces on the roads around their homes, meaning delivery drivers and visitors are unable to park anywhere near their destination.
One exasperated neighbour in Colnbrook said: “The parking firms take the often expensive cars from holidaymakers jetting off abroad and the owners probably assume their vehicles will be parked somewhere safe and secure while they are away.
“However, the opposite is true because the firms are driving out to public roads and parking literally scores of cars at a time on unrestricted residential road, avoiding parking fees at the airport.
“Sometimes it is absolute chaos.”
Today, a spokesman for Slough Borough Council which administers Colnbrook, said it was undertaking a survey to see what could be done to thwart the unwelcome parking.
The issue was raised at a council meeting in the borough when it was suggested that it could introduce controlled zones for parking with a fee having to be paid, which would deter the “meet and greet” airport parking opportunists.
The council spokesman said that it wanted to introduce controlled zones in Colnbrook to stop plane passengers’ cars from being left there for weeks at a time.
A report by the authority suggested parking permits would generate about £200,000 per year.
It said the plans would allow it to “assert some control” over the situation and end the “free-for-all.”
Colnbrook is about a 10-minute drive from Heathrow and residents believe the village is used by airport “meet and greet” parking companies.
Concerns were cited at the council’s latest cabinet meeting, with the Labour-run authority stating in the past that it could not take action where cars were parked legally.
However, council leader James Swindlehurst said the introduction of controlled parking zones would “get us a bit of a grip on a wild west environment in parts of the town.”
“Hopefully we can assert some control, get better regulation of the streets and potentially make some income if the scheme works well,” he added.
Consultations on the proposals were reported to be commencing in May.
Meanwhile in Chertsey, also a neighbour of Heathrow, residents told how the parking of airport cars had been causing great inconvenience.
Parents struggled to pick up their children from school and many residents were unable to leave their driveways, as the cars lined the street bumper-to-bumper.
Many of the cars were new and expensive, all had their wing mirrors folded in and had airport terminal parking tickets visible, according to one concerned neighbour who lives on Gordon Drive, Chertsey.
Speaking about one weekend recently, Zoe Faiz posted on Facebook, to organise the local community to respond to the parking firms and contacted her local council and Heathrow Airport to urge them to do something about the problem.
Mrs Faiz said: “The cars came on a Sunday night because I noticed it when I came home.
“They were still there on the Monday morning and a couple of us thought that was a bit weird.
“Monday evening became pretty chaotic for the schools, I am not around for the school time but when I came home at 6pm they were still there – I thought this is really weird.
“So I posted on the Facebook group on Tuesday and loads of people noticed it.
“There were one or two people who suggested it might be a Heathrow parking company and I thought no, really surely not?
“I worked from home on the Wednesday and they were still there. I took a little look and noticed in loads of the cars they had entry tickets for the Heathrow airport terminal car parks.
“It was really obvious because the cars were parked bonnet-to-bumper, really close and every single one had an entry ticket. There was no way they were genuine parking.”
John Burnside, who lives on Little Green Lane, Chertsey, where most of the cars were dumped, said: “I couldn’t believe it. The street was blocked and people couldn’t come out their drives. There was not a foot between them.”
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, added: “There were six cars parked at the end of the drive, a Jag, a Range Rover – these were expensive cars.”
Speaking of the owners of the cars, Mrs Faiz said: “There were quite a lot of nice cars. I’d be surprised if none of them had trackers when the owner’s were on holiday.
“The owners of the cars assume their cars are parked safely in a car park and don’t know they are on a random street.
“They all do this ‘meet and greet’ thing. You go to the airport and meet them and hand over your keys because they say the car parks are 25 miles away.”
2
