RESIDENTS calling for parking controls near Northwood Hills station will have to gather support for another petition if they are to win their 10 year battle.

Neighbours in some roads surrounding the station have called on councillors to install residents only parking schemes, in a bid to ward off commuters who leave their cars there all day and catch the train to work.

Tolcarne Drive, off Joel Street, has been particularly badly affected, while in Harlyn Drive, the problem is made worse by school traffic from Harlyn Junior School.

Residents in Lichfield Road and Colchester Road have also complained of commuters taking up valuable parking spaces and blocking their driveways.

Problems began, neighbours say, when the train station car park was sold and made private in the 90s. A consultation on parking management was first carried out in 2002 and then again in 2009 when a petition was drawn up. Both times, not enough residents in the area were in favour and the plan was abandoned.

But fed-up neighbours are now asking for measures to be taken in individual roads which were in favour.

Sharon Pink, in Tolcarne Drive, which also houses the Pinner Practical driving test centre driving, said the problem was blighting the area.

She said: “It is possible for them to consider individual roads. This road continues to be a special case because of the primary school and driving test centre.”

Rev Ken Limbert, former vicar of St Edmund’s Church who lives in Colchester Road, said: “It does get very bad. Each morning I can count 22 cars parked along this road.”

David Bishop - a former councillor for the area who lives in Lichfield Road - raised the issue at a full council meeting on November 3 but was told consultations had shown there was no demand for a parking permit scheme.

He has also enquired about turning some empty land owned by the Tesco petrol station in Joel Street into a carpark but says he has hit a dead end.

He said: “I don’t want to do another petition if no one is going to listen to it again. But people who live here have nowhere to park and there must be a solution.”

Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Planning, Environment, Education and Community Services, Jean Palmer, said: “We have consulted residents in this area on a number of occasions and the response has not been in favour of fresh parking control measures.

“However residents can still use the petitions process to highlight any concerns, which will be looked into once sufficient signatures have been received.”