On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 05:32:23AM -0800, Mizter T wrote:
On 16 Jan, 12:21, David Cantrell wrote:

Regarding supermarket car parks - most now threaten you with a 'civil
penalty charge' (or some such) if you overstay the maximum stay, and
the companies that enforce these restrictions on behalf of
supermarkets can get your details from the DVLA. I don't really know
the legalities behind this all and to what extent this can be
enforced, but I presume there's something in it. That said, this does
somewhat rely on the enforcement taking place - more often than not it
just seems to be a threat.

I would assume that for that to work, they'd need to actually post
information about it. The cheap-**** (I forget whether it was Aldi or
Lidl) supermarket in Streatham didn't last time I abused their
hospitality, although that was some time ago.

The one thing that many people appear to have issues with when it
comes to parking their car on side streets is some fear that it will
get broken into, stolen or vandalised. I think that, with regards to
much of London at least, this is a rather overblown concern.

Indeed. If it's a residential street, you're generally OK - after all,
the vast majority of the people who live there don't have their cars
broken into. I'd be more concerned by leaving the car overnight in a
car park where there aren't other people around, or parked on the street
in a small town - where, again, there aren't lots of people around.

Last point - one real issue with parking in somewhere like Streatham
is actually getting in and then back out again on the A23, which is
basically gets pretty clogged up at peak times. It is of course
possible to take a number of alternative routes to avoid the A23 but
these can be a bit involved and I'm not sure I'd recommend these to
people unfamiliar to the side street ways of sarf London.

The OP said they need to be in central London by 09something, so aim to
park in Streatham by 08something - shouldn't be *too* bad. Coming from
Polegate, I'd leave at 0630, and once in Streatham itself, take the
first left after the Aldi/Lidl and park somewhere around there. From
there it's a short walk to Streatham Hill station.

--
David Cantrell | Enforcer, South London Linguistic Massive

Fashion label: n: a liferaft for personalities
which lack intrinsic buoyancy