Room for manoeuvre?

Written by Steve Wilks Sunday, 29 January 2017

©Geoff Wilkinson

It is welcome that the council has made the first step towards listening to residents by holding a long-overdue consultation, says Steve Wilks on the postponement of Wanstead's new parking regulations.

Last month, local councillors for Snaresbrook and Wanstead held a public meeting regarding the controversial plan to implement a change in parking regulations in Wanstead. The cost of the scheme is estimated at £93k, with a potential income of £135k over five years (2017–2022), averaging £27k a year.

The original proposals included:

• A new resident's parking scheme for three areas in Wanstead (Wanstead West, covering Snaresbrook around Spratt Hall Road; Wanstead South, covering the roads around Overton Drive; and Wanstead East, covering the roads in Wanstead Village).
• A High Street pay and display scheme.

However, at the eleventh hour and due to pressure from residents, the council admitted there will need to be a substantial rethink of the proposals. While the local authority still wants to impose pay and display machines in the High Street, it has postponed introducing the scheme for several months to allow for a 'full and thorough detailed consultation'.

An updated proposal was initially made to reduce the area that will require residents' permits. However, no solid evidence has been presented to justify why some roads are excluded or included in the permit zones and all options will now be considered. The council needs to be transparent in its dealings with Wanstead residents over its intentions, and it remains to be seen how much of a consultation this will be rather than a last-minute attempt to appease locals.

The January meeting was arranged following the inadequacies of the information sessions in the week before Christmas, where council officers attempted to explain the scheme. One clear omission from these sessions was that no concrete evidence was provided to justify why Redbridge Council wanted to implement the plan in the first place. The key takeaway points that arose from the January meeting were:

• An acknowledgement that commuters are parking on roads in Wanstead Village and around Overton Drive to pick up the Tube at Snaresbrook or Wanstead and that residents have concerns about their ability to park near their home. The strategy to resolve this needs to be fine-tuned – it should not be implemented instantly as this could have unintended consequences, which the council would do well to avoid.
• The zoning boundaries will simply move the parking problem to non-zoned areas. The knock-on effects on neighbouring areas must be evaluated.
• The council has taken no account of the mixture of land use (business and residential) on certain roads, such as Nightingale Lane. There needs to be a sensible compromise, balancing the needs of congestion against the commerciality of Wanstead.
• The proposal is still in consultation, but why had the council already ordered 800 poles to put up the parking signs on the High Street and surrounding roads? It seems they wanted to go ahead irrespective of local opinion. Moreover, there appears to have been a lack of consideration for what existing street furniture could have doubled up as signs. This means pavements may become cluttered again, reversing the work done previously when a grant was obtained from TfL to consolidate and reduce street clutter.
• How is the revenue raised from the scheme going to be spent? It is illegal for councils to use parking fines as funds to be spent in other areas. The RAC Foundation said that between 2014 and 2015, local councils generated a combined 'profit' of £693 million from day-to-day, on- and off-street parking operations. "We are simply asking that all councils publish annual reports to tell drivers exactly where this huge excess ends up," said Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation.

To summarise, if compelling evidence for such a scheme can be produced, which will lead to a sensible compromise between residents, businesses and other stakeholders, then people will be prepared to listen. The way the council has operated thus far indicates the proposals were a foregone conclusion. When one party does not listen to the other side or is not willing to show how it has arrived at its decision, then it leads to bad governance and poor decision-making. Other proposals, such as changes to the garden waste collection service and in council democracy, only serve to reinforce these concerns.

Residents in Wanstead, Snaresbrook and Aldersbrook are proud to live in its environs and are fiercely protective of changes that are steamrollered through due to commercial reasons. Redbridge Council needs to press pause and ensure the consultation now takes the temperature of local residents' views before continuing with this scheme.

For more information on the proposed changes to parking in Wanstead, visit wavidi.co/parking

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