Tudor Barn wedding venue owner says council’s new parking restrictions ‘cut a lifeline’
By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter
The owner of a 16th-century bar and wedding venue feels like she has been “slapped around the face” after councillors voted to ban free street parking during the day.
Suzie Bailey, who owns Tudor Barn on Well Hall Road in Eltham, said the new parking restrictions made by Greenwich council will hit her hard.
Ms Bailey told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “[The barn] is the busiest wedding venue for the Royal Borough of Greenwich. And yet we don’t have any parking facilities. And if you cut that, it’s like you’re going to cut a lifeline for us. We already don’t get bookings because of the parking.”
Under the new restrictions, called Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs), drivers will have to pay to park in the streets neighbouring Tudor Barn, unless they have a permit.
The new rules will apply between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday to Saturday.
Ms Bailey took over Tudor Barn in 2009 after the space had been empty for years. She said: “It was a pub with a very bad reputation…. Lots of antisocial behaviour, the moat was full of beer cans and there was a lot of drug use going on.”
The owner initially didn’t take a salary when renovating the 16th-century pub and said since changing the building into a bar and wedding venue, locals in the area have seen a noticeable decrease in antisocial behaviour in the neighbouring park.
With staff and clients parking on nearby streets such as Kidbrooke Lane, Ms Bailey described the free parking in the area as “imperative” to her business.
She said: “I’ve been here 14 years. I’ve never once had a day that I could not park on that road, and half the time it’s empty. And you’ve got every single resident on that road that said no.”
Council documents showed that the new controlled parking zone had 19 objections from locals and businesses in the nearby area.
At the November 8 meeting, councillor Averil Lekau said: “If we’re dealing with a group of 1,000 people, and 100 or 150 people write in, that means 850 people have not felt it worth responding.”
Ms Bailey said: “I have put my whole life into this business and struggled through. We started in one recession and got through it. And we got through the pandemic. And we’re getting back up there and now suddenly they go: ‘you can’t have parking anymore.’ I just don’t think we’re going to survive.”
The new controlled parking zone for Eltham is scheduled to be brought in early next year.
“This is to protect residential parking spaces and encourage the use of public transport in line with Council’s Transport Strategy and Carbon Neutral Plan. Any revenue raised from parking is ringfenced and subsidises the Freedom passes for the over 60s and vulnerable residents so they can travel for free on public transport.”
Pictured top: Suzie Bailey, owner of Tudor Barn in Eltham (Picture: Joe Coughlan)
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