Brent Cross shopping centre has offered to scrap its free parking to counter fears that a major redevelopment will cause traffic jams.
Britain’s oldest shopping mall says it will use parking charges to deter thousands of customers from arriving by car. The high-risk offer, which emerged last night as Brent Cross’s bid for planning permission hung in the balance, could see it lose custom to rivals such as Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush.
Westfield attributes part of its success in its first year to the decision to allow shoppers two hours’ free parking.
Barnet councillors will tonight conclude an extraordinary two-day meeting to decide whether to grant permission for 7,500 homes around Brent Cross and for the shopping centre, which opened in 1976, to be transformed to create a “new town centre” in a 1.4 million square metre site.
The area is notorious for congestion, especially around Staples Corner, where the M1, A406 North Circular Road and A5 Edgware Road intersect. The development would create an extra 9,000 car journeys a day – though critics say the true figure is 29,000.
The developers – shopping centre owner Hammerson and Standard Life – have not asked for any increase on the 7,600 spaces at Brent Cross. Charges would start at £1 for up to two hours but would rise to £30 for visitors looking to spend more than eight hours there. The scheme would take up to 30 years to complete.
David Howard, chairman of the Federation of Residents’ Associations of Barnet, said: “We think it’s an arrogant, selfish, money-centred scheme.”
You can avoid having to pay parking fees at Brent Cross by using the Tube and our text service to find free parking near tube stations outside the congestion zone. Simply text the word Parking plus the name of a tube station OUTSIDE THE CONGESTION ZONE to 80039 and you’ll receive a text back giving you three locations near the tube, or the one closest to it on the same line.
If this happens……….Ta ta Brent Cross .. Hello Westfield!