We face time-consuming search for a place to park

Published: 20 January, 2011

• IN Cressida Road, Archway, we have had controlled parking zone (CPZ) restrictions in place from 10am to 2pm for a number of years, so the proposed “roamer” parking scheme will effectively nullify these restrictions on our road for any Islington resident.

We agreed to the CPZ in the first place because of the extreme parking pressures we faced in this area. 

These were due to a number of reasons, including the close vicinity of Whittington  Hospital and Archway Tube station.  

Life before the introduction of our CPZ was truly awful.  As a mother with two very small children at the time I constantly had to park a good 10 to 20 minutes away from my home. 

I received numerous parking tickets while being forced to double-park my car to unload shopping. The amount of traffic on our roads looking for parking spaces was noisy and dangerous, with stressed commuters racing around the streets looking for available spaces. The proposed scheme will mean that any Islington resident with a parking permit can once again leave their car on our streets all day long. It will mean that, once again, our roads will become a car park for any resident who commutes into central London and for workers and visitors to Whittington Hospital. It will mean increased traffic, something I thought all London boroughs wanted to reduce.

I am appalled but not shocked by this proposal or by the fact that the council has decided to implement it without a proper consultation. Once again this illustrates the council’s belief that it knows what residents want without ever having to ask them. 

Having just renewed my residents’ permit for 2011, it now seems pretty obvious to me that this initiative is purely to disguise what can only be called a scandalous rise in the cost of the parking permit. In effect, the council is asking us to pay £50 more a year for a permit which will be virtually useless on the roads will live on.

As a working mother with two small children in school, and like many other residents in the area, my time is precious and I do not want to spend a large proportion of it having to drive around looking for parking spaces near my home, particularly when I pay £147 a year for a residents’ parking permit. 

From the conversations I have had with other residents in my area I understand many feel the same as I do. I would ask that a formal consultation is sought for these proposals with all residents in this area or that this proposal is prevented from being introduced in this area.

SUSAN KIRBY
Cressida Road, N19

• THE “roamer” parking scheme proposed by Islington Council will inevitably increase traffic and pollution. It will also affect all residents in and around those areas where parking controls would be weakened, not just those who have council parking permits.

By consulting only with permit holders, the council has failed to give all residents an equal and effective say on these proposals. This is not only a matter of fairness; it also opens up the council to the likelihood of residents challenging the scheme in the courts.

I therefore call on Labour council leader Councillor Catherine West and her colleagues to suspend work on the “roamer” scheme and to run a full and open consultation of all residents, setting out all the consequences, including the negative effects on air quality, health, congestion and climate change. 

Given that the council already spends a great deal of money on printing and distributing the Islington Now magazine to all residents, the additional cost of consulting them through the magazine as well as through the council’s website would be minimal.

CAROLINE RUSSELL
Islington Green Party 
campaigns coordinator