A LOADING bay is ‘causing misery’ for motorists who do not realise it is only for private use.

The short-term parking space near Sainsbury’s in Grahame Park Way, Colindale, is currently owned by Choices for Grahame Park Ltd and people who use it are being fined for occupying private land.

Derek Dishman, who runs a Barnet parking blog as Mr Mustard, has been appealing with Barnet Council and Regional Enterprise (Re), who handle development in Barnet, to adopt the land into public use.

The council agreed the space should be available for public use and told Mr Dishman it would take two years to adopt it for this use, which Mr Dishman does not believe.

He said: “The council's outsourced provider Re clearly aren't up to the job of managing council estate land as they say it will take them two years to adopt one little stretch of land.

I think that they only need to give one month's public notice and then it is council land once again but everyone seems reluctant to tell me why it will take two years.

“It is clearly in the public interest for the council to adopt this piece of land at the earliest opportunity so the predatory enforcement can be brought to an end.

“Why the council have allowed a private company to paint the words loading bay on the public highway is another question which needs an answer.”

According to Barnet Council, it is standard practice to wait a period of time for potential defects to emerge and then be rectified at the developer’s cost before the road is adopted by the council. 

They said the approach ensures the infrastructure is of the desired standards and ensures to taxpayer is not liable to foot the bill for any improvement works during this period.  

The maintenance period is commonly set at two years as is the case for Grahame Park.

An unnamed council spokesperson said: “Given the concerns raised by our residents about the adequacy of the signage at the loading bay the council requested the owner increase the visibility of signage nearby, which was done in May. 

“The privately owned road which the bay is on is being adopted by the Council as part of the wider Grahame Park regeneration scheme.”