Following on from the results of the consultation on Controlled Parking Zones, the cabinet member responsible, Cllr Phil Jones Cabinet Member for Sustainability, made his decision on 3^rd July.  As a result of lobbying by Cllr Olad, the meeting was turned into a public meeting so that a deputation could be made to Cllr Jones before he decided what to do.

The key issue was whether the hours of control for our CA-D residents bays should be changed to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The current hours are 8.30am to 6.30pm Mon – Fri, and 8.30am to 1.30 on Saturdays.  Anyone can park in residents’ bays on weekday evenings/night, and from lunchtime on Sat, through Sunday to Monday morning.

A lot of residents reported difficulty with being about to use the bays because of the open parking in the evenings and at weekends.  We think people using the West end or Covent Garden on Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday use our area as a location for free parking.  Resident’s bays in Covent Garden (CA-C) and Westminster are all 24/7 bays.  

Our three ward councillors, Julian Fulbrook, Sue Vincent and Awale Olad have been vigorous and persistent on our behalf, lobbying to have the CA-D resident bays hours changed to 24 hours; meaning that only residents with CA-D permits can park in them – at all times.  Cllr Jones acknowledged the work put in on our behalf by our ward councillors.

We asked for CA-D to be made 24/7. Failing that, where specific roads had requested it, these roads would be made 24/7 – a sub zone of CA-D.  We asked for a review of P&D bays and where they are under-used they would be converted into CA-D, and similarly with Trader bays.

Cllr Jones listened very carefully to the deputation, the comments made by officers about their report and also Cllr Olad.  They key fact is that the consultation resulted in many more people being against changing the residents bay hours than were in favour. There was discussion, and in the end Cllr Jones’ decision was to accept the recommendations of the report on the consultation: The hours of control for CA-D will NOT change. Officers WILL examine underused Pay & Display bays for conversion to duel use CA-D/P&D, and also audit the number and use of trader bays for potential conversion to CA-D resident bays.

The issue in creating a sub zone is that it is inconsistent with all other resident zones across Camden; it creates displacement parking into adjacent non 24-hours resident parking – leading those residents to complain, and, where drivers have not understood the different in street by street hours, accusations that Camden have deliberately made it complex/difficult to understand as a deliberate money-making ploy.

Clearly this isn’t the result many of us were hoping for.

But here’s the thing… our councillors can only do so much.  We live in a democracy.  It’s up to us to effect change; but to do so we have to participate.  Here are a few facts:

Approx no. of CA-D resident permits 1,537

Approx no. of CA-D resident spaces 1,466

Approx CA-D permit to parking space ratio 1.05

Camden’s consultation was detailed and widespread. They posted it to EVERY address in CA-D – 18,695 addresses. Only 922 addresses took the time to reply.  That’s 4.90%

Ok.  Perhaps not that many people are interested in hours of residents parking bays.  Plenty of you complain about not being able to get into a bay when you need one.  So, the result of the consultation will still be in favour of 24/7 control?  Wrong!  Overwhelmingly, people voted against changing it.

In answer to the question, “Would you like parking controls introduced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in CA-D, King’s Cross and Holborn?”

YES 31.3% (289)   NO 58.0% (535)   Don't know 10.6% (98)

And the answers to other questions produced similar results.

Officers even analysed results road by road, separating CA-D north and south at Guilford Street.  The results couldn’t have been clearer.  74% of respondents south of Guilford Street wanted Mon-Fri hours kept as they are, 60% wanted the hours on Sat left unchanged.