“Why do we need another consultation on a new parking zone?”

By John Lawrence

Barnet Council has promised to conduct a second public consultation before going ahead with any new 11am-3pm controlled parking zone (CPZ) across the top half of East Finchley following an angry backlash from residents and businesses that caused parking chiefs to postpone their original start date in February.

The promise was made by Councillor Alan Schneiderman, Barnet Council’s cabinet member for the environment and climate change, at a packed public meeting on the CPZ organised by East Finchley Town Team and attended by more than 70 people at the Constitutional Club in The Walks, N2, last month.
“The commitment is that the original scheme will not go ahead at this time,” said Cllr Schneiderman. “If there are any new proposals there will be a full and proper consultation on them. We definitely want to work with the local community and we share the interests of everyone here.”
“We don’t want it”

But many at the meeting questioned how much notice the council would take of another consultation after seeing it give the CPZ the green light last year despite 71% of people who answered the first consultation in November 2021 saying they didn’t want it.
Kate Brown, chair of the Town Team, said: “The clear feeling of the people at this meeting is that they do not want the scheme to be resurrected and just presented to people in another consultation form for them to fill out again.” Someone from the floor added: “Why do we need another consultation? We’ve already said we don’t want it in the first one.”

In that first consultation, the council claimed there was a slender majority of 51% of respondents who would benefit from the CPZ by taking the 22% who expressly supported it and adding another 29% who reported ‘parking issues’ of some kind in their road, even though these may not have been solved by restricted parking hours. For instance, some at the meeting said it was the evening hours when their roads were crowded as residents arrived home, rather than during the day.

Money-making scheme?
The main justification for CPZs is that they remove over-crowding caused by commuters from outside the area taking up spaces during the working day. Three zones in the southern section of East Finchley closest to the tube station already serve that purpose.

But the proposed new zone across the northern section is at least a 10-minute walk from any tube station and many residents in it say they are not crowded out by commuters. Several people at the meeting expressed the opinion that any new CPZ in this area would just be a money-making scheme for the council. Residents would be required to buy annual permits to park during the hours of 11am to 3pm from Monday to Friday. Councillor Schneiderman answered the point by saying: “Any money the council raises from parking over and above the cost of the scheme has to be used on transport and roads. There are very tough legal restrictions around that.”

What was said at the CPZ public meeting?

Here is a selection of the questions asked and the comments made by the residents and local business people who attended the Town Team’s public meeting about the postponed new East Finchley controlled parking zone (CPZ).
Roger Chapman, East Finchley Town Team: “There needs to be full and proper discussion of any future CPZ and co-operation from all sides to work through the issues. The impact on organisations, schools and businesses should be full assessed. And the same applies should the council be considering extending the hours of the parking zones already in place in East Finchley.”

Edward Butler, the Sylvester Road resident who organised a petition in protest at the way the original public consultation was conducted, which attracted 1,150 signatures: “I appreciate that the CPZ scheme has been paused for now. The council needs to communicate better and rebuild people’s trust. A consultation should put all the right information in front of people. Then they need to see the data from the results to check that it’s needed and is effective and that any parking hours are proportionate.”
Joss Woolf, Church Lane resident: “We must look after our local businesses. The Piccolo Villaggio restaurant, Jennie Mann flower shop and Emily’s hairdresser on the corner of Long Lane and Church Lane would all be badly affected if their customers couldn’t park during business hours.”
Brackenbury Road resident: “The CPZ will not solve the problem of bad parking. It’s after 5pm when residents are at home that we have issues. We see people parking on the double yellow lines at the East End Road end of our road. That needs to be enforced first before introducing more restrictions.”
Owner of Clichy Garage, King Street: “I run a small business where my staff have to commute in. We will have to shell out thousands of pounds on permits just for our staff to continue to work for us.”
Local resident: “We should be concerned about older and more vulnerable people. It will be harder for their carers to park and visit them. These people often find it hard to navigate the council website or app to make payments so they are just going to get more and more isolated.”
Councillor Alan Schneiderman, Barnet Council cabinet member for the environment and climate change: “It has been the council’s policy since January 2021 to implement larger parking zones. The theory is that they prevent the incremental displacement that you get if you just keep pushing parking restrictions out road by road. But obviously the bigger zones bring the issue that there will be people in those zones who are not affected by parking issues at all and say they don’t need them.
“We paused the implementation of the CPZ in East Finchley in recognition of the concern coming through from councillors and residents. Should we have a second consultation, I take the point that clearer communication is needed next time.”