‘Parking restrictions make West End a ghetto and kill businesses’

Patricia Michelson, who runs La Fromagerie specialist cheese shop in Marylebone, said parking regulations are killing businesses and making the West End feel like “a ghetto”.

Her shop has been established 10 years but she is not entitled to a permit and pays £3,000 a year to park in a private block. Her car and delivery vans are routinely slapped with tickets when forced to park outside the shop, she said.

“Even if you leave it out there for five minutes, even if you put a sign up saying ‘delivering’, they will still slap a ticket on. I contest them all. I feel it’s my right to be able to conduct my business and my right to appeal. The profits being made are ridiculous.”

Ms Michelson, who was heavily involved in last year’s campaign against plans for a nightlife tax, was also angered by Westminster council’s decision not to allocate any extra free parking days over the festive period. She said: “We just had December 25 and 26 and then it was back to normal. Boris Johnson didn’t put the congestion charge on until January 2. The Mayor gives with one hand and the council takes with the other.

“There are too many restrictions on coming into the centre of town. We feel like we are in a ghetto — you have to pay to come in through congestion and then you have to pay to park.

“There are so many restrictions on having a business, yet they say the jewel in the crown is the West End. They say we have all the shopping, but they don’t help people to come in to do it.

“They don’t understand why businesses complain or why they are dying. There is this general apathy and lethargy going on and it is because Westminster will not recognise the importance of businesses in order to bring people into the West End.”