NEWS FROM THE COUNCIL MEETING

This is a really important post for anyone interested in what is going on and what is about to happen. We met with the council and this is what happened.

THE RESEARCH
The council finally let us know what they have done since the last meeting in March. They carried out some survey work, of occupancy of the roads in the area at different times of the day (a Tuesday and a Saturday).

They took note of vehicle licence numbers only in order to see who had stayed over night and was back that evening (residents they are assuming), who had come to park during the day ("visitors" or commuters) and not so that they could check DVLA records which is what we had been told.

I have a copy of the occupancy maps, which were colour coded by road, under 70percent occupancy, 71 to 80, 81 to 95 percent and over 95 percent. It makes for interesting reading and I'm happy to send people the occupancy numbers for their road if they would like to know. I'd scan it but it is massive, if you would like to see it I can bring it round.

A brief summary is that they surveyed on 2 days at 5am, 12:00 and 19:00 on a Tuesday and a Saturday.
Carr and Fleeming take the brunt of the problems the new extension has created with Elphinstone too suffering and roads out towards the Billet roundabout also above 95percent overnight. Whether these roads have problems related to the extension, which is pretty far from them is another question. During the day on the Tuesday they surveyed Carr and Fleeming are at least 81 to 90 percent occupied, with Fleeming hitting over 95 percent at 1900 on the Tuesday but not at weekends.

Winns Ave (in the extension, having voted against it) was under 70 percent occupied the whole time except for one small stretch in the LP zone, which went into the 71 to 80 bracket for the 5am time. There is a relevant point coming up regarding the other roads in the LP zone. (I have asked for the actual figures as, as a resident I know that often it is under 40 percent occupied and this is an important point). Either way it shows that Winns Ave is half empty during the week and at weekends.

WHAT THEY ARE PROPOSING
There were 3 main points they raised (and I'll outline my opinion in the next post as I think there is a fundemental flaw)

1. They have had complaints from residents of Diana Road at the length of the restrictions imposed, saying that weekends etc are overkill. We have had residents from Badlis Road come to us and say the same thing, even though their restrictions are longstanding. The council are proposing to re consult Diana, Badlis and Winns Terrace about the hours of their restrictions. They will be given the options of reducing the days and hours of the restrictions, but not the option to remove them. They also already intended to put pay and display metres in Winns Terrace, they seem aware of the great under utility of the road there.

2. The area to the West of Diana road between Winns Ave and Forest Road (though not including Winns Ave) will be left as it is and not reconsulted. That's Mersey and the rest of the perpendicular roads currently in the WA zone.

3. Winns Ave will be reconsulted and offered the option of removing the restrictions all together, and if they decide they do want it what hours would they like. In the previous consultation Winns Ave voted firmly against and when forced to make a choice on hours went for the least restrictive options. It is now half empty and has restrictions 6 or 7 days a week over very long hours. In addition they have had complaints from Winns residents. For all of these reasons they are being given the option to remove the restriction all together.

4. They will consult the area North of Winns Ave up to the roundabout if they want restrictions too. They do not want to include the option of weekend restrictions as evenings are the main problem and 7 day a week restrictions cause complaints and distruption for all sorts of reasons.

In addition to this it became clear that a couple of residents in Carr would vote differently depending on the outcome of the reconsultation in the current zone. And so we asked that the Winns Ave restrictions be abandoned so that residents of surrounding streets could see the level of improvement. They said this wasn't possible.

I suggested doing the Winns Ave and LP zone reconsultation first (a very small area compared to what they are proposing to consult and the only bit that is legally time dependant), making any changes so that residents could be fully informed and see the outcome before consulting for a further extension to the north. They said this wasn't possible. And so agreed that a question could be added to the consultation so that "if Winns Ave vote against" and "if Winns Ave vote in favour" could be taken into account.

Personally I think there is an enormous flaw in this now I have had a chance to think about it, if the council had let us know what we were going to be discussing in advance it could have been sorted out at the meeting I'm sure. More on that in the next post.

So that is how it currently stands and they are looking at reconsulting at the end of Oct as legally they have to make modifications to the Experimental Zone within a year of bringing it in and that is rapidly approaching.

Thoughts appreciated. (If I have missed anything / mixed anything from the meeting, do let me know!)
Best wishes
Andrea

Update

Dear all, I'm sorry for my prolonged absence and for the comments that consequently have only just been made public as they were unmoderated. All up now.

This evening some of us went to the council meeting that Lorna mentioned in the previous post. It was an interesting meeting and there is much to report. I'll be updating this again at the weekend, there is quite a lot to mention and I want to make sure I get it right! (residents of Mersey road, don't worry nothing will change for you, nobody was trying to get rid of the scheme, just make it usable, acceptable, more convenient and cost effective so that more people were happy.)
I'll post more at the weekend.
Best wishes
Andrea

next meeting date

It's proposed that WMCPAG should meet again on 15 September at 7::30 pm at the Lloyd Park Centre before again meeting with the Council on 17 September.Any residents are welcome to attend this if you would like to get involved.

This seems the most popular date for everyone,its also the date for the next William Morris Ward Panel meeting and unfortunately I an highly unlikely to be able to attend either due to work.

interesting newspaper article

this was from The Yellow Advertiser on 18th June 2009-I hope its ok to post it here.It makes very intersting reading for those residents who rely on carers or who are carers.

Lorna's story

I think it would be a fab idea if we could get a selection of residents to post their stories on here,you can email us or leave a comment and we'll make it into a post.

I live on Fleeming road,and in the 8 years or so I've lived here this is the worst the parking has ever been-obviously it has got busier over the years but the dramatic increase in vehicles parked on Fleeming when the CPZ was my first warning of the CPZ been introduced.

Parking could always sometimes be tricky,but I could usually always park in my own road if I came back from work before midnight and as a shift worker,I return home at various times,so I think I can say with some accuracy that the parking is at best difficult at anytime of the day now,even returning from supermarket shopping during the day its nearly always impossible to park anywhere near my home.And returning from work in the early hours usually means I have to park in Elphinstone or Pennant Terrace (sorry residents!)-just what I need after a 16 hour shift!

I have also noticed an increase in commercial vans parked in the road,and cars that are parked in the same spot for weeks on end,leaving the residents not able to move their cars into view of their flats.This is important to me as my car was broken into recently,and I feel that this may have been due to the fact it was parked out of my sight-before CPZ I always parked or moved my car to outside my flat for security,and my neighbours knew it was my car if there were any problems.
For me the answer would be to get rid of the CPZ-you only have to look at Winns Avenue to see how few people park there,I am sure that many of those residents park in Carr and Fleeming roads,and I dont blame them with the price of the permits!Why should the people who live in Carr/Fleeming and Elphinstone be so disadvantaged by a CPZ that it seems the few voted for?Why arent CPZ permits free per household anyway-and charge the people who drive in to work in the area to park instead,as far as I can see this is a pure money making scheme,if it was only to solve the parking problem surely the permits would be free?

Winns Photos explanation

Just quickly, the top 2 are Tues 14th, the next 2 down are Weds 15th and the last 2 are today Sunday 26th. I can't get back in to edit it so they line up properly with the captions. Sorry :)

Some more photos for you....of Winns Ave

Tuesday the 14th July 9 cars between the Park and Fleeming at 7 in the morning

Wednesday 15th July 11 cars between the Park and Fleeming 8pm

Sunday 26 th July 7 cars between the Park and Fleeming mid afternoon

From Traci

Being on Carr Road, we are also victims of the zoned parking overflow. Even the delivery people complain. It feels like we have all the second cars people don't want to bother with permits for on our street. We finally solved our problem by selling our car, but that's a luxury many people can't afford.

From Sandy, sorry I couldn't copy the clever pictures!


HI
Our house pay for permit parking because it lets us park close to our house which helps as both of us have health problems and accept that to do this will cost us each year.
I understand the frustration many residents feel about permit parking and they way it pushes those that don't have or will not pay for a permit to move to non permit streets. For years we suffered from that very problem and even asked the council if we could pay for permit parking on a near by street to which they said no. If permit parking was removed from our street then we would once again be forced to park up the side streets taking one of the locals parking space. It seems that no matter what way this is viewed, someone will lose out. I also accept though, that permit parking is part of living in a big city like London and not likely to change.

Fiona's story

Fiona,I thought I would post your email as is.

I’m sorry to hear the new parking restrictions have been causing such problems.

You may not want to hear this, but I wanted to say that I voted in favour of the parking restrictions, as it had become impossible to park on my street (I’m now it the LP zone), or anywhere near my street. Coming back from the car with shopping and a small child was impossible. I’ve lived in my flat for 6 years and there never used to be a problem, but probably in the last year or so parking had become a real headache. Apparently parking restrictions were introduced the other side of Forest Road, which pushed more cars on to our and neighbouring roads. It seems that the same problem has now been pushed onto the area outside the new zone.

Clearly the new parking restrictions have caused problems for others – for us, personally, it’s been a dramatic improvement, as we can now park outside our flat - and we need to find a solution for this. It seems to me that parking for the wider area needs to be assessed – there’s no point getting rid of the new parking zone, unless you do the same for the one the other side of Forest Road (and potentially the one next to them, which is presumably why they needed one). Hopefully there are some transport and planning experts around which can help with this.

On the positive side, I see that a carshare scheme has just been introduced in Waltham Forest. This may mean that some local people will not buy a car, but use the car share instead, which should relieve some of the parking pressure.

It would be good to know what you are campaigning for i.e. what do you want the Council to do about it? Apologies if this is on the site, but I couldn’t find it.

Many thanks and best of luck.

Fiona