Our streets will be filled by commuters

Published: 14 January, 2011

• I HAVE no doubt that the new visitors’ permit policy, which allows drivers from outside the borough to apply for unlimited vouchers, will become an unmitigated disaster for my ward. 

I am fairly certain it’ll turn out to be very bad for most of the borough (Hillrise east and west, Tollington and Gillespie, with just four hours of controlled parking zone (CPZ), will be poorly served too) but for an area like Junction ward, where the CPZs cover just two hours of the day, it will be awful. 

Currently, very few commuters drive into central London as there is almost nowhere to park. 

With the new visitors’ permit scheme, all this will change.

Due to this mad new permit scheme, driving from Aylesbury to London is 25 per cent cheaper than travelling by train. The time taken for both is approximately the same at an hour-and-a-half.

Not only will our streets fill up, but think of the carbon, anti-environmental aspect. Not just locally, where this will blow a huge hole in the Archway low-carbon zone, but borough-wide and further afield.

If the Labour council had had the wherewithal to run a proper consultation on its whole parking policy prior to any executive vote, all this could have been explained to it and the policy changed.

Surely it is time for Labour to put its hands up, admit its mistake, repeal the whole policy and start again. Anything less is just madness.

CLLR ARTHUR GRAVES
Lib Dem, Junction ward