The Royal Parks, who run Bushy Park, are looking to introduce car parking charges at some of their sites.

Royal Parks launched a consultation on 7 September and are proposing to introduce parking charges in all the public car parks in Bushy and Richmond parks.

Their proposals aim to discourage the use of the car parks by commuters, raise revenue towards the maintenance and upkeep of the parks and align their parking strategy with their other sites across the capital.

On Facebook we have had a very vocal response to these proposals.

Here are some of them:

Janet Cohen Mayne said: "Many families will face unemployment in the coming months as we start to feel the economic consequences of the Covid pandemic. For many of us Bushy Park is a lifeline - a free open space where we can walk, run, jog or simply hang out with our families when seeing them at home is forbidden.

"These are all activities that promote good health and counteract obesity. To charge for car parking will discourage many people from coming here."

Eileen Folan said: "One of the key objectives of the royal parks is "to promote the use and enjoyment of the royal parks for recreation, public health and well-being". Introducing car park charges runs counter to this objective. It is a disincentive to use the park, and may restrict access for families who cannot afford to pay."

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Jim Baylis said: "Bad enough that people have had months of not being able to go out, loss of earnings, loss of jobs, why not just make it more expensive for them to enjoy the Royal Parks which were originally hunting grounds for the Monarchy. They were then preserved as 'freely' accessible open space, later becoming 'public parks'."

Sally Pollard said: " I think it would be a great shame to introduce parking fees in Bushy and Richmond park...just for once it would be great to keep the freedom of free parking."

It is clear then what the majority of residents think of introducing parking charges in Bushy Park.

A petition has now been launched to stop the parking charges which you can sign HERE