A local councillor has successfully campaigned to save the free parking at Morrisons in Hatch End.
Cllr Matthew Goodwin-Freeman’s petition, shared by Harrow Online last week, gained thousands of signatures from local residents concerned about losing access to free parking.
“We’ve done it! We’ve saved the free parking at Morrisons” said Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman as he ended his petition against the company’s plans to introduce charging restrictions.
Just last week, residents across Hatch End were outraged to hear that Morrisons were planning to introduce parking restrictions.
People using the Harrow Arts Centre’s facilities in Hatch End have been able to use the Morrisons/Safeways car park for free if all spaces at HAC are taken.
Losing this would have impacted users of the Elliott Hall Medical Centre, Hatch End Swimming Pool, Hatch End Playing Fields, U3A, Hatch End Horticultural Society, Harrow Bee Keepers, the Harrow Tonic Choir and more.
With growing resident concern, Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman’s launched his campaign to save the free parking at Morrisons, Hatch End.
In just 24 hours the petition had around 1,000 signatures and in Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman’s recent update the petition was nearing 2,500 signatures.
Plans for the initial car parking regulations have now been changed. Morrisons have agreed a plan with Harrow Council which will see users of the Arts Centre get 4 hours free parking at Morrisons simply by entering their plate number in a machine.
This doubles the 2 hours Morrisons were originally offering and ensures no-one will be unable to attend a show, dance class, meeting or event.
Cllr Goodwin-Freeman pointed out the enormous effort that has been put in the last week to get to this positive result.
“A massive thank you to the Council’s teams who’ve been working on this. To Cllr Marilyn Ashton, [Deputy Leader of the Council & Portfolio Holder for Planning & Regeneration].
“She had worked so hard this week to get [Morrisons] round the table and make sure that they listen.”
Cllr Goodwin-Freeman also thanked those who signed his petition, saying, “Thank you so much to the thousands of residents who signed the petition…we’ve made sure businesses put residents first and listen to your voice…That’s what our administration does: it puts residents first and that’s what we’ve done!”
Chris Mitchell is the founder and editor of Harrow Online, Harrow’s leading local news platform.
He launched Harrow Online in 2010 as a Facebook page sharing local news and information. Since then, it has grown into a trusted source for breaking news, crime, council decisions, planning, transport, business and community stories across the borough.
Harrow Online reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each month and has a social media audience of more than 200,000 followers.
For news tips, press releases or enquiries, contact Chris at info@harrowonline.org.
