Parking restrictions designed to free up space in St John’s and Lewisham has left small business owners on the outskirts of the town claiming they lost up to 40 per cent of their business.

Ibby Ibrahim owns two of the four small shops at the end of Brookbank Road and has seen commuters resort to parking their cars on their street, leaving no space for any customers.

The street has become so jam-packed with people parking their cars on their way to work that police have had to be called when buses got trapped because they couldn’t turn properly.

It has left My Ibrahim’s laundrette and corner shop out of luck, taking snaps of trapped buses as he has lost all his customers.

He said: “The overload of cars outside the shops has also caused numerous near accidents, and also the police been called several times due to the fact that the buses cannot actually manoeuvre around the corner

“I have been here for 19 years and have never had my business so badly affected. I would say I have lost at least 40 per cent of my business.

“There was supposed to implement changes in order to help us out by March 2017. Nothing however has been done, this has destroyed all the trade for the shops.

“Lewisham Council was supposed to be helping small businesses, this has definitely not been done for us.”

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “We had made some proposals for short stay parking bays over the length of the shops and some yellow line restrictions nearby.

“Following a consultation with local businesses, it was felt a wider CPZ would be a better solution so we will be including Brookbank Road in our next CPZ consultation which is currently scheduled to take place within the next few months.”