CPZ parking ‘cock up’ caused chaos for Clapton residents, councillors told
Hackney Town Hall, where there were angry scenes last night
Hackney Council “cocked up” a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in the Clapton area when officers left seven roads without controls, councillors were angrily told at a Town Hall meeting last night.
There were rowdy scenes in the chamber, with enraged residents interrupting councillors and shouting at them before storming out.
Ian McNicol, who lives on one of the streets inside what he described as a parking free-for-all “island”, said disabled residents had taken to placing bins in the road to try and protect their spaces.
People’s lives had been made “hell” because of the changes, he added.
Some of the problems stem from residents of streets inside the new CPZ area parking their second cars in streets just outside of this zone to avoid having to pay a permit fee, he believes.
Cars had been “displaced” from surrounding streets into the small pocket where there was no CPZ, he added.
“We’ve got a municipal parking lot on our doorstep,” McNicol said. “From 7am in the morning on a Monday until 7.30pm on a Friday evening we’ve just got cars going in and out all the time and there’s no space for residents to park.
“If you leave the area, you won’t be able to park in it, and the only place you will be able to park legally is in Chatsworth Road on parking metres half a mile away – and for only two hours.
“The officers did not think through this partial extension of the residents’ parking and leaving only seven streets out of 29 free for parking. They just did not think it through.”
He told councillors: “You’ve cocked it up big time here.”
Outside the meeting residents told the Hackney Citizen they were now desperate for the CPZ to be extended to cover their seven streets: Fletching Road, Thornby Road, Wattisfield Road, Chailey Street, Cornthwaite Road, Cotesbach Road, and Mildenhall Road.
But one council insider suggested the only reason it was not rolled out there in the first place was that a majority of residents in these streets had initially been opposed to just such a move.
In any case, it will be months before this can now happen because of the statutory timescale for communicating information about a new CPZ extension to residents – a delay that will almost certainly cause further woes.
Since the implementation of the CPZ changes in Clapton in the run up to Christmas there has been “growing tension, altercations and damage to cars due to frustration caused by the poor implementation of the extended zone”, according to a deputation brought to the council.
On one occasion an ambulance was unable to get down Chatsworth Road because the road was so chock-a-block with cars.
At the time the council was even forced to paint emergency double yellow lines on the eastern side of Chatsworth Road between Millfields Road and Lea Bridge Road to try and ease the chaos.
Councillor Feryal Demirci, the politician in charge of parking, said: “We have consulted the roads that initially rejected parking controls.
“We are currently analysing the data from the consultation and hope to have the final report approved by February.
“If controls are supported, residents and businesses will be able to buy permits from April 2017 with controls being introduced in May 2017.”
Where CPZs were “imperfect” they would be “refined”, Cllr Demirci told the meeting.
The new cycling superhighway near Butterfield Green in Stoke Newington was another transport issue which led to flashpoints between councillors and residents last night.
The partial closure of some roads in the area to cars had led to a build up of traffic along the A10 and in surrounding residential streets, according to people who brought a deputation about this to the council.
Among them was the mother of a schoolboy who was knocked down by a hit-and-run cyclist while he was crossing the CS1 route.
Dear Ian Rathbone
I do hope that you are not following the disgraceful example from our mayor and deeming yourself above answering your constituents concerns.
I am also a little concerned that you and everyone involved in this debacle have no answer as to what the residents are supposed to do when they find themselves with nowhere to park.
Last night in the meeting none of our concerns were answered particularly as to what an earth we are supposed to do.
The options seem to be to:-
Drive around endlessly – causing more pollution and increasing ones carbon footprint and fuel consumption. Lowering the quality of Life for all around.
Park in a CPZ zone in our neighbours street thus risking a parking ticket or being towed away.
I am concerned that should the above happen ( as eventually it is bound to), that this would be Entrapment – where the council has created an environment whereby it’s citizens have no choice but to break the (Traffic) law.
What are your views on this?. Does anyone in the council have a backbone to answer what we are supposed to do?
Many people in Hackney have had to face the same issues thanks to the councils divide and conquer policies in implementing CPZ at least these people had a choice they could go and park in a non cpz area to avoid being fined or paying.
But our case is unique as we are one of the last islands – there are literally no alternative streets for us to park in.
The council could easily treat this case as such and move forward its inevitable plans to carpet hackney with CPZ. Instead it vindictively makes us suffer an intolerable lowering of the quality of our lives.
This is against the human rights act of The right to lead a decent life – but in this case, the council knows nobody can afford to take them on in court, so the simply go on abusing their position by ignoring it.
Best regards
Steve
entrapment
ɪnˈtrapm(ə)nt,ɛnˈtrapm(ə)nt/
noun
noun: entrapment; plural noun: entrapments
the state of being caught in or as in a trap.
“the feeling of entrapment grows as the roads close and the power goes out”
the action of tricking someone into committing a crime in order to secure their prosecution.
“his style of investigation constitutes entrapment”
The use by an authority of an agent provocateur to entrap its citizens into committing a crime has been the subject of many defences that the state has gone above and beyond what is lawful in detecting crime and has subsequently abused its power and abused the process.
I know exactly how you feel, I live in 1 of 5 rounds that do not have permit parking. When all around are permit roads. I drop my child to school in the morning and there are cars lining up to grab my space. On returning there is no spaces left so my onlt option is to pay to park on pay and display in nearby streets. It’s an absolute shambles.
We have an issue at the moment where the CS1 runs at the end of our road. Our road is a Residents only road with a few bays at the top of the road for pay and display only. Now the road which is now CS1 had had a few parking bays removed. ..so what do the council do? That’s right they increase the shared use bays to half the length of our street. .maximum stay 4hrs! So now we have far less for residents only, we have a school at the top and end of our road. Carboots every weekend. .and not to mention the numerous bars and restaurants at the high road. We struggle to get parking if we leave the house during the day as it is. There are many families with children, they do clubs after school, early morning weekends.people can park at 3pm and practically leave their car all night if they wanted to! 3 notices put up at the top of the road. .over Xmas! This affects the whole road. No letters posted, no consultation. …every door on this road should have had information .Money making scheme yet again! !!! On top of that another cycle track had been put into place on our road. .3 more spaces taken!
Why were charges imposed in the first place in Clapton? Pure greed from LBH and another opportunity to ‘bash the motorist’. and make a quick easy buck.
I live in one of the as yet uncontrolled roads around Clapton, and I find it odd that one Councillor states that no controls were imposed on Thornby, Fletching etc, because nobody wanted controls. It is my understanding that only ONE of the streets behind the Pond wanted controls, yet a CPZ was imposed on ALL of them. WHY? [Greed maybe?] How much DOES the council make out of parking charges and fines?
Yes, it is true our lives have been made hell. Coming back to my own home with my weekly shopping means I have to unload a sleeping baby, and toddler, park, and unload shopping in the middle of the road, (blocking the road) – with angry motorists tooting their horn at me, then drive round endlessly looking for a space!
I’ve seen friends arguing in the street over spaces, selfish parking in available spaces, parking in a gap big enough for two cars to fit in (presumably for when the wife comes home later !!) angry confrontations and tradesmen and those making large deliveries, etc, with nowhere to go!
Life here used to happy and peaceful. Now its hell. Thanks LBH! #FUME
We don’t want to pay, and have CPZ – we just now have no choice.
I have some sympathy with residents as we in Durrington Road have suffered similarly because originally residents decided they did not want a CPZ as there was always pleanty of room to park. However neighbouring roads, in the consultation, chose to have it as they were suffering from parking by residents who did not wish to pay in their home CPZ, hospital staff and Homerton station users. Once the CPZ was implemented we then had a flood of cars often parked all week and even longer. Perhaps the Council could have warned residents that this was likely to happen where neighbouring roads joined the CPZ in the consultation process.
The Council is only able to use receipts from CPZ to pay for road improvements and using receipts to manage the systems. Councils have suffered great cuts to their budgets at a time when demands have increased in many other areas. They are left with little choice but to gain such funds for road maintainance and improvements.
Shouting at the councilors will not help as the process to implement an extention of the CPZ to their roads is likely to take some time due to the legal restraints placed on the Council. It took a long time for our origional decision not to have our road included in the CPZ.
CPZ’s actually do nothing to reduce the amount of cars on the road. It’s simply used as a pretext to eventually have the whole of Hackney as a CPZ which destroys some of the village like community feeling that is so special to the borough, especially one that is an inner city borough.
The problem is not cars, but houses/dwellings that are converted into flats which are then let out or brought by people who bring these cars. Some parts of Hackney have houses which are converted into 3 flats potentially tripling the amount of cars on the road. And all of these new developments which may be built are not going to waste valuable land space on a car park!
A CPZ does not take cars off the road, just pushes them out to the boundary. If LBH want to reduce the amount of cars, then they need to reduce the amount of planning permissions they grant to convert dwellings into flats.
if you think it’s free parking which makes the ‘village like community feeling that is so special to the borough’ then i truly pity you
@ Frustrated
I’d love to see any research you have that backs up that assertion.
The pertinent question is this:
Thistlewaite Road voted against parking controls. But it was made to have CPZ because, the council stated, it would suffer from displacement parking.
Why wasn’t the same logic applied to the remaining seven roads in this residential enclave? Surely it was obvious that they would have to contend with displacement issues too?
And why has the council now started saying that Thistlewaite was given CPZ because it was ‘a logical boundary’….?
Something does not add up here.
The council and some of it’s dodgy officers have already weighed up the consequences of shutting down the last of our roads. They realise when this happens, that the workers of Homerton Hospital and the nearby schools will have absolutely nowhere to park.
They would prefer that this problem (of nowhere to park) was faced by the council tax paying residents who it would seem have absolutely no rights to park anywhere, rather than the local workers, because when they do finally do the right thing, they will have an even bigger problem of staff retention in Homerton and the nearby schools. Then the problem will be Homerton has no cleaners and low paid staff and our schools will have no teachers as they all seek to find employment that they can get to.
The dodgy officers involved have given as much time as is possible for these people and the residents can and will pay the price for this. Once again Hackney Council lowering the quality of life for it’s citizens.
The original consultation was written in a code that made only of use to cover the councils backside when residents complained that they had not understood what it meant, it would not be hard to make it easily understandable, but obviously clarity is not the LBH way when it comes to CPZ’s..
We then got to hear someone who is supposed to be a Labour councilor say that delaying the introduction of the CPZ for the other streets while the 7 roads where re-consulted would not be fair on those businesses and residents who are rich enough to say yes without giving it at second thought. The version of socialism I know is based on the needs of the many above those with the ability to pay.
We were told the second consultation could not be sent out because of the mayoral election, it then took best part of 2 months to then send it out to around 25% of the people who were meant to receive, so it had to be reprinted apparently to be sent out again, so there with have 3 months of council generated delay, A month on since the closure date and it seems they have still not managed to count the votes??? I mean really it’s probably 400, so there’s another month.
That is a total of 4 months delays due to people at the council not doing their jobs promptly or correctly,
We were told at the council meeting that the CPZ would extended into the 7 streets on May 1st. A bit of simple maths tells you if the council had acted promptly and correctly the CPZ extension could have taken place on January 1st…and we get to pay for this???
I’m afraid that putting parking spaces above homes is not really what a decent society would do.
There’s some real nonsense here from the people who voted no and are now demanding the council do something. When you had the original consultation you were asked two questions: 1) Do you support controls in your street? and 2) Do you support controls if neighbouring streets decide to have them? (or words to that effect). If you had said Yes to the second question you wouldn’t be in this mess.
I feel for anyone who did say Yes but the rest of you are just trying to blame the council for YOUR decision.
Here in Upper Clapton we are waiting for the results of our consultation to join the new Zone R before it starts. We got our vote because we could see that we would be in the same predicament as you are if we were left out of the Zone and campaigned to have a say. We then leafleted residents alerting them to the displacement nightmare that would await them. Hopefully the vote will go the right way but if it doesn’t that will be the fault of the residents, not the council.
And as for hospital cleaners etc having nowhere to park, you do realise that 60% of Hackney households do not have a car? It’s perfectly possible to survive without one which is unfortunately what you are effectively going to have to do until May.
It was NOT clear on the document we were given that the area within the map could be divided up on a street by street basis, maybe they have now refined it so it is, but our one it was not or 400 people are illiterate.
I voted yes, but the dividing was not clear and clarity is what was needed.
The original consultation was written in a code that made it only of use to cover the councils backside when residents complained that they had not understood what it meant, it would not be hard to make it easily understandable, but obviously clarity is not the LBH way when it comes to CPZ’s..
We then got to hear someone who is supposed to be a Labour councilor say that delaying the introduction of the CPZ for the other streets while the 7 roads where re-consulted would not be fair on those businesses and residents who are rich enough to say yes without giving it at second thought. The version of socialism I know is based on the needs of the many above those with the ability to pay.
We were told the second consultation could not be sent out because of the mayoral election, this was in May, it then took best part of 2 months after said election to then send it out to around 25% of the people who were meant to receive it., It then had to be reprinted apparently, to be sent out again, so there with have 3 months of council generated delay, A month on since the closure date and it seems they have still not managed to count the votes??? I mean really it’s probably 400, so there’s another month.
That is a total of 4 months delays due to people at the council not doing their jobs promptly or correctly,
We were told at the council meeting that the CPZ would extended into the 7 streets on May 1st. A bit of simple maths tells you if the council had acted promptly and correctly the CPZ extension could have taken place on January 1st…and we get to pay for this???
Not living in a CPZ (the raison d’etre of which is to ease congestion) makes it feel like a village community.
You call a dingy one bedroom flat with no natural light a “home”? We hae very different standards.
Could you be more specific? A few assertions were made.
Because there is a chance that the remaining 7 roads would have said no so by forcing cars into an uncontrolled area, they can persuade residents to say yes to extending the CPZ.
I don’t understand how there is a lack of parking space in that area. You have Cornwaithe Road which has no houses on either side, and then you have the park side of Wattisfield Road which also has no houses on one side.
How are people still not being able to park because it’s surely not outsiders coming to park late at night?
There are simply too many residents with cars and a CPZ will not address that. The council doesn’t guarantee you a parking space even if you are in a CPZ. Ludicrous!
– I really hope the results of Upper Clapton are a resounding No to the CPZ.
– The Council is obviously going to put those kind of questions. Any rational person who would normally answer No to the first, will choose Yes for the second because he will loose out. In actual fact, it would allow LBH to override your second decision.
To give an apt analogy, that is what Brexit has done. Though you may have voted No, your peers may override your personal preference. Does that seem fair to you?
Steve J
How do you know who the “people who voted no” are? I thought these things were supposed to be private? Under the data protection act?
and re “It’s perfectly possible to survive without one” That may be the case for you but there are many people that live here, who need their cars for their work including driving instructors etc etc. There were also people needing their cars for helping charitable organisations running chores etc but they have now had to give this up because of the hassle brought on by LBH.
No I didn’t realise that 60% of households do not have a car – unfortunately I don’t have access to such banal irrelevant information.
Do you realise that many of the teachers working in the local schools drive in from places like Essex? because they cannot afford to live in hackney (with or without cars)
Your knowledge of who voted yes or no, leads one to suspect that you are one of the dodgy underhanded and sometimes criminal members of the council that brought this mess to us in the first place – for them breaking laws on data protection is a minor thing so I wouldn’t put it pass them or you.
“Any rational person who would normally answer No to the first, will choose Yes for the second because he will loose out.” That was my point, but they didn’t, there was virtually no difference in the vote.
Most of Hackney Downs ward has already voted for controls, there’s just the small area in the NE of the ward awaiting results. I am optimistic the whole ward will go CPZ in May and we can get rid of the commuters, vans, semi-dumped vehicles and people from nearby zones who don’t want to by a permit. Some residents here have already started selling second or third cars – CPZs definitely reduce demand.
No, I simply read the officers reports – available online for anyone to see on the parking web pages (under old consultations).
Conspiracy theorizing does not advance your cause one iota.
Next step crank up the parking permit charge for old diesels which are filling our children’s lungs with particulates
Any decent human being wouldn’t want to impose their preference to override that of their neighbours so we vote No to the first, and no to the second. We are not selfish people that play the dirty game that LBH tries to make us play when it comes to consultations.
The consultation questions are deliberately framed in that manner, to achieve the results that LBH want it to achieve.
Yes, a corner of the NE Hackney Downs ward is resisting and I hope it continues to resist. It is not for you to make decisions on behalf of the ward just because it suits you.
It’s no conspiracy that many of the senior officers in hackney are corrupt – I have first hand evidence of this. when I exposed their corruption. Nothing was done except they ran a smear campaign against me( which backfired on them showing them to be the liars that they are), even the head of the council joined in. Many of them are still there unchecked and carrying on with their blatant corrupt ways.
Your use of (unaudited) stats from hackneys website does not advance your cause of belittling this unique situation. The same corrupt council produced those stats. The same council is abusing our human rights to lead a decent life and causing all sorts of anguish. We cannot drive down the road to other roads. There are none. The officers involved reply (as to what we are supposed to do when faced with nowhere to park) is they refuse to answer – a tactic they often use when they are exposed in breaking the law or ignoring their own policies.
Frustrated
Clearly you don’t live here so let me help you to understand. There are generally no spaces to park even in the roads and spaces you have mentioned. They were once an easy place to find a space (before LBH implemented it’s divide and conquer CPZ) to half the streets in our area. Now we don’t just get the dispersion from these streets we get everyone as we are one of the last places left to freely park.
re- The council doesn’t guarantee you a parking space even if you are in a CPZ. Ludicrous!
In fact it is written in the same road traffic act that the council uses to justify it’s cpz:-
s.122 of the 1984 Act provides the general duty of every local authority upon whom functions are conferred by or under the Act, to exercise those functions to secure the: “expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular and other traffic (including pedestrians) and the provision of suitable and adequate parking facilities on and off the highway”.
In our case the council defied this legal duty and actually caused the increase in our daily traffic by 10 fold and they certainly have not made any provision of suitable and adequate spaces for residents to park. The trouble is it takes a lot of money/time to take these inept/corrupt individuals to court – then they’ll use our money to defend themselves and so we just have to put up with their continuous abuse of office.
When you say “Ludicrous” are you signing yourself off? or making a point?