Hi everyone, new poster here.
Can I check the rules regarding parking in Pearcefield Ave Car Park - am I right in thinking to get the initial two hours free all you do is get a ticket from the machine ?
I don’t have to register my mobile or anything like that ?
I’m using the car park for the first time while I’m at the nearby gym which I’ve just joined and I always fear I’m going to get some outrageous fine ?
Thanks for you help
Yes, thanks for campaigning by the Forest Hill Society I believe.
Well yes… but the machine was knackered for a long time and was unusable. I’m not sure if that is still the case, so perhaps have the PayByPhone app set up ready to make a 0p payment just in case?
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
Thanks for the replies and advice.
I try to remmebr to keep[ pen and paper in the car to write a note. The important thing is to have a note with the date and time you parked for the two hours to start from. There have also been times when some of the numbers wouldn’t work so I print off a ticket and add mine.
Hi All,
Does anyone know what has happened to all the parking meters in Pearcefield Avenue car park and surrounding roads?
Today has been my first visit to the Pearcefield car park since the car park was repainted a few weeks back and I’ve just noticed that the meters have been removed and replaced with 1 sign for Pay by phone sitting where the free parking meter usually is.
I looked for another meter or sign towards the back of the Sainsburys car park and no other PayByPhone signs could be seen.
Sadly I couldn’t use the car park as the app says I’ve exceeded the stay (despite not using the car park for weeks) and the phone people couldn’t help me.
Is the council making it hard to use another car park and would rather it sit empty? - I say this as myself and about 8 other cars drove off after not being able to pay.
I don’t agree with the app only parking method. I’ve been unable to park in various areas, as it won’t accept through phone and trying to get help to sort in out via phoning is no help. Leaving me unable to park at app only meters. Absolutely ridiculous.
Especially as I have used it before, but can’t now.
This also affects many elderly who don’t necessarily get technology. My mum and dad would have no luck, if they had to try and load app etc to park.
Absolutely agree with you, we need options for everyone for inclusivity.
Even 1 machine would be good as a back up as the app doesn’t always work for those that can use it
I don’t know if it applies to that car park, but the Council are planning to stop cash payments in car parks that includes Girton Road. Apparently you can still pay in cash at some shops but I don’t see how that will stop you getting ticketed invtge time it will take trekking to and from a shop if you have mobility issues. Not all people with mobility issues have a blue badge.
Big list and details on charges in the News Shopper, which I’ll try to add to this post. Apologies in advance if this doesn’t work. It’s across a few pages.
South London Press 250222 Public Notices pages 43,44,45,46 and 47 THREE of THREE.pdf (8.3 MB)
Thanks - looks like they have introduced different prices for vehicles with different emissions. More here: Lewisham Council - Changes to Pay and Display parking
Even if you can use the App you’ll get a shock to you see how much the parking costs now if you stay longer than 2 hours. I went to use the car park this morning, went on the App and it said it was going to cost £14.25 to park for the day, it was £7 last week. Fortunately I got the last space in the station car park, £4 for the day.
I believe the Pearcefield Ave car park partly bases the cost on your emissions. Not sure what’s going to happen when we lose spaces from the station car park and those with mobility issues are going to be expected to pay £14 a day to park if they travel to work by train/overground.
I had a look at that link and it seems like if you had the largest engine size and a non-compliant euro 6 diesel you would pay £5.50 an hour plus the ULEZ to go that side of the South Circular.
I know the aim is the reduce pollution but I think most people with an old car would either try to park on Taymount Rise on the other side or drive the extra mile and a half to the big Sainsburys in Sydenham. It does seem like another council policy that displaces and increases pollution rather than reduces it.
The council needs to become a bit more inventive/creative rather than pushing more pollution displacement policies. Most locals know that this makes local streets very attractive for non-resident parking, why does the council not understand this?
That costing system is so complicated and intentionally obscure to put off any motorists. Shame they public sector doesn’t think about the customer and advise what to do if the app fails and the shop isn’t accessible to buy a ticket.
Overall this will hurt the coffers of the council in the long run as people will spill out into other boroughs to do shopping for larger spends and not pay to park in Lewisham. This means the empty land will be expensive to maintain with little user income.
I usually do a big shop at Sainsburys FH but will now probably go to Sydenham due to free parking or Penge as Bromley council aren’t as horrendous as Lewisham at parking or customer service.
What every other non-FH resident does…clog up our residential streets with their parking!
That Paybyphone thing is infuriating - I registered with an old work phone a while ago and now they won’t let me reregister with my email or set up the app without insisting on sending a text to the old number.
That aside, I noticed the new car park paint job, but I’m particularly impressed they managed to paint around the old silver Mercedes that has been abandoned there for at least a year now. It only has one ticket on it and a note that says ‘it’ll be moved in 2 days’.
Have you deleted the old account with that unusable number? You usually have to do that first before trying again.
It’s an interesting approach - charging for non-emissions of parked vehicles, whereas everything is allowed on the South Circular where actual emissions are being breathed by pedestrians and cyclists.
I don’t think Lewisham Council wants a Forest Hill town centre at all. FOH has to be one of the last centres in London with shops and restaurants etc, that hasn’t had the traffic calmed.
So if I’ve understood this right I can drop my wife outside Sainsbury’s FH then drive round and round the block passing 3 schools, or more depending on the block, chucking out emissions all the way then pick her and the shopping up when she’s finished for about 50p in petrol or I can park in the car park and we can do it together for £14.25. Gosh, that’s a tough choice.
PS It works exactly the same if she drops me off just in case anyone thinks I’m being sexist!!
You can do it together for 2 hours for free before you get charged. 
Do you have to use the app to park up to 2 hrs free?
I’m afraid so.
Ummm that’s not good as I haven’t got an app on phone to delete account. It was done via phoning the number. I couldn’t park at kings hospital, Croydon, Dulwich. Not great when you really need to park somewhere. 
For a bit of perspective, I’ve paid £10 to park all day in the Barbican NCP today.
You can sometimes beat local car park charges by using the Just Park app, where you book online and use a privately owned space often in someone’s driveway. Within a couple of minutes walk of Forest Hill station all day slots are about £4-6.
I’ve used in quite a few different towns - rates vary per hour or per day, but it’s usually priced well against local competition.
If you happen to have a private space in an in-demand area that you would like to rent out occasionally you can get a small income stream going too.
It does sound like an app that encourages extra pollution on local residential streets and might end up removing council car parking facilities as they become less profitable but perhaps inevitable.
Yes, why don’t you move your car from your driveway, park it on the street and deprive local residents of on-street parking so you can make extra income and add to local pollution.
On a more positive note, I think the council should look at providing some kind of incentive to residents to re-wild their driveways if they are not in use so that they can improve the local environment perhaps paid for by a local tax on people who rent out their driveways. Most people prefer looking at a garden than paving.
I don’t like our streets and pavements being suffocated with private car parking.
Just Park provides a service that there seems to be a market for. I think it’s a pretty smart business idea.
There’s no point paying for a Just Park space if car parking is free and available.
Many people with spaces live in restricted public parking zones and so offer space where there is no public space or where it is commonly full.
Just Park space owners often do not have cars themselves.
Many Just Park spaces are in underused private car parks eg those belonging to small businesses.
Not without an App it seems. So technophobes, anyone who physically can’t operate or doesn’t possess a smartphone or people like me who just don’t do financial transactions on their phone are excluded from parking in Lewisham’s car parks. Perhaps LBL’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager ought to intervene.
On my street most of the driveways are now paved - yet another one added this week. So unfortunately I think people prefer looking at a car in their front garden than plants…… presumably the council gets an income from residents having to pay for crossovers being installed? (Those that bother!)
It does ruin the look of a street, but it’s difficult to park otherwise so I can see why they do it.
I can as well.
Currently there is overwhelming benefit in turning your garden into a driveway, making streets Greyer so I think it is the rational choice.
Keeping a garden is rarely going to win.
It is ironic we have indirect subsidies from Lewisham to turn gardens into car parks while they are also subsidising turning a car park into a green space at the station. The strategic Making Lewisham Greener should recognise that keeping gardens by the sides of roads is indirect green space that benefits us all. It doesn’t mention it at all.
I agree that app only parking discriminates against the elderly and those who cannot use smartphone for any reason. I choose not to put any financial transactions on phone for security. This means that I cannot use Pearcefield Road car park any more. I try to shop on foot where possible but where it is not I will be going to Bell Green. So much for supporting local traders.
Marymck suggested in response to my earlier post that the fleet of foot could pay cash in some shops but when I checked the nearest paypoint was on Dartmouth Road which would give the wardens plenty of time to slap a ticket on your car especially bearing in mind the age and abilities of most people that don’t live on their phone - not very “inclusive” is it?
So, like you I will drive an extra 4 mile round trip and pollute Bell Green instead.
You don’t have to have a smartphone to pay by phone. Instead you can phone a number and enter details that way. You will need the location code, your registration number, and a credit card to access the two hour free parking. The nearest pay phone is on the other side of the South Circular - so in theory nobody needs to feel excluded by the technology and should be able to complete the registration process before the two hours expire.
But it is much easy to do shopping further away if you don’t have the appropriate technology.
Buy this wouldn’t prevent a ticket, would it? You would need to register before your grace period is over, which IIRC is 15 mins.
Edit: oh, perhaps you were joking.
Thanks for this. However reading your card details out in a public place is not very secure.
You don’t speak them aloud when you do the over the phone service. They’re typed in when prompted.
Ah thanks. So you key it in on the phone? Which is what I don’t want to do. I think putting any bank or card details into phone is risky
It sounds like your best option is to drive to dartmouth road, pop in and pay nothing for the right the park elsewhere, then drive round to the car park. Somehow I’ve made this sound simple rather than farcical.
If you need the location code it is 803762.
This scheme is possibly brought to you by the same sort of people who would require you to pop to Brussels to fill in a visa application when you’ve fled your home with no money and only the clothes you stand up in. Oh or to find a working computer or smartphone with internet connection on the fields of Armageddon.
Whatever happened to a little thing called commonsense?
We voted to leave the commonsense.
When my daughter wants shopping when staying with us, she always says it’s easier to just drive to Bell Green as it is at least free parking, & from where we live is just as quick if not quicker as she avoids the traffic at Forest Hill.
I don’t enjoy the Gulag vibe there
I’ve never thought of it like that I must say!
It’s in no way like the Gulag because the McDonalds is still open.
I’ve noticed more tickets on cars in this car park. I do think the signage needs improving, or could a lack of signage be part of the revenue raising plan?
The council does need to raise funds after budget cuts, this setup is easy money 
I think they’d need to ticket about 100,000 cars to make a dent in their £250m budget. 
Every business has to start somewhere with revenue, this is their start.
I’ve been to a few Lewisham car parks in the last week and have noticed the removal of parking meters across the board.
Pearcefield won’t be the only car park seeing increases in tickets, FH is not the only place affected.
Tickets = Cash, the old meters worked and I don’t see any other council removing these, Greenwich and Southwark seem to still have meters so the ULEZ reason is just an excuse.
(I’ll call Lewisham a business as they are now acting like a commercial business not a public organisation caring for all residents with different access levels).
They couldn’t set tariffs based on vehicle pollution. Once Lewisham made the decision to test this new pricing methodology, they need the payment system to be linked to a registration database.
The problem is that higher parking prices aren’t going to worry people who drive cars with big polluting engines - increasing tax on diesel would make much more difference, and tax the second hand car market on most polluting vehicles. But if the government won’t do these then the local council might as well cash in on the gas-guzzling cars that are driving round London.
Commonsense disappeared long before we voted to leave whatever it is that you’re referring to; it disappeared when “the computer says no” became the go to response.
Thanks for your reply Michael, sorry if I am being dense but where would I pay in Dartmouth Road?
I think he is referring to a ‘paypoint’:
https://consumer.paypoint.com/cashout
According to the map there are several on Dartmouth road
So you can use these cash machines to pay for parking?
Is a paypoint a cash machine? If so then I guess the answer is yes.
Edit: I had a look at the webpage. They are not can machines. They are places, probably typically shops, where one can pay bills.
The pay machines were often out of order - or at least one of them was.
I agree with others this is not a good system for those that struggle with new technology
It’s a pity that they cant use cameras on entry to read number plates so anyone who is there less than the free period doesn’t have to bother with the app.
It also means you can plug in a electric car at the house instead of running a cable out across the pavement or having to find a charging point.
In a perfect world…
In Lewisham world they use the ANPR (cameras) to generate fines, but not to save you trouble. At least this is how Bellingham Leisure Centre (council owned but parking ‘managed’ by APCOA) works - ie you need to get a permit for the free period despite the presence of ANPR.
