Richard Wilson

Earlier this month I attended a meeting with the parking officers in charge of the review of the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), and the new cabinet member in charge of parking Cllr Nilgun Canver.  The officers came armed with maps of the proposed consultation areas, which they’d drawn up following a previous meeting (see picture).

The full consultation with residents will happen in the Autumn, with residents inside the CPZ being asked if they still support the CPZ and whether they want the rules changed (different hours and different sub-zones within the CPZ). Residents outside will be asked if they want the CPZ extended, and what the hours of the extension should be.

It is proposed that the consultation will extend up to and including Ridge Road.  Roads to the north of Ridge Road would be notified about the consultation, but as there is no strong campaign for a CPZ in those roads the Council do not plan to include them in the formal consultation area.  There will be a simultaneous consultation on extending the Crouch End CPZ which will cover Ferme Park Road and and roads to the west.

Over the next few months the Council will be drawing up the consultation questions and finalising the consultation zones, and will be running focus groups of local residents from different roads to help them with this.  If you want to take part in the focus groups then please get in contact.

The process is very ponderous, and any changes or extensions to the CPZ will not be implemented till 2011.  However, these focus groups should hopefully mean that the consultation works better and that there is less criticism of the consultation process than last time.

The Lib Dem team for Stroud Green have launched our election pledges for the neighbourhood.  I joined Lynne Featherstone, Katherine Reece and Ed Butcher at the Stationers Park play fort (see picture) – to highlight our top three priorities for the ward.  Our top three pledges are:

• We will make sure the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is reviewed, and that streets outside the CPZ can join if there is residents support.
• We will fight for measures to slow down traffic on Upper Tollington Park and to make the pedestrian crossing safer.
• We will make sure the Stationers Park Play Fort is replaced with an even better play area – ending years of broken promises from Labour.

Of course, there are a million other things we want to do, from improving our children’s centre to fixing our pothole problem, but speaking to residents – its the council’s failure to sort out these three problems that is causing the most frustration.  Residents are angry about the parking situation, want action on speeding traffic on Upper Tollington Park, and want an end to the years of broken promises on Stationers Park play fort.

I hope local residents will back these positive pledges to improve Stroud Green.

Great news – a long running campaign by local residents and councillors for a review of the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is finally being acted on by the Council, who have at last agreed to put this in their 2010/11 work plan.  The review would include a parking consultation with residents who live outside the CPZ who are badly affected by displacement parking, as well as residents inside the Zone.  Last year we did a survey of residents in streets outside the Zone which got over 300 responses, and presented the results to the Council.  79% said parking had got worse and 61% said they now wanted the CPZ extended, and residents on some roads have put together petitions to demand action.
 
This is also great news for residents who live inside the existing CPZ who regularly complain about the rules, hours and enforcement of the parking controls.  It will also help residents who are angry about the boundary of the CPZ, with anomolies like the Oakfield Road bridge being included in the CPZ when there are no residents living on it.  Labour councillors have repeatedly promised reviews over the last 4 years, but these pledges have always been broken. 
 
The battle now is to hold the Council to this promise and to make sure the consultation is promptly and properly conducted, and is fair and considers all options.  As councillors our job is to make sure all views are heard, whether anti- or pro-CPZ.  Obviously we remain absolutely adamant that CPZs should purely be about helping solve residents parking problems, and not about raising money for the Council.  We will scrutinise any proposals to brought forward by the Council to ensure they stick to this principle.
 
Yesterday, along with councillor Lyn Weber from Crouch End ward, I met with the council officers in charge of parking to press for this review to  go ahead as soon as possible.

Yesterday, we presented Haringey Council will the final results of the Stroud Green Parking Survey.  We got a huge response with over 300 surveys completed either on the doorstep or online.

We started the survey because so many residents in the roads outside the existing Finsbury Park and Crouch End CPZs were contacting us to complain about parking (see post on launching the survey).  The key results were:

• 79% of residents believe that parking has got worse this year
• 61% of residents say they are now in favour of a CPZ , 32% are against a CPZ, and 7% stated no preference.
• 38% of residents say they used to be against having a CPZ but are now in favour.
• 58% of residents believe any CPZ should only operate for 2 hours .

These results demonstrate the urgent need for a proper Council consultation looking at the options for tackling parking problems.  We’ve written to the Haringey cabinet member in charge of parking demanding that he now holds this consultation - and a full review of the existing Finsbury Park CPZ.

As well as setting out residents’ views on CPZs, our letter also sets out other suggestions residents have made to reduce parking pressures, such as:

• Allowing residents who live just outside the CPZ boundary to buy permits to park inside.
• Allowing free parking on stretches of road where there are no houses, such as the Oakfield Road bridge or the covered reservoir.
• Providing dedicated van and truck parking (in appropriate places) for local residents who run vital ‘man and a van’ businesses.

The Council must listen to local residents on parking.

Over the summer Ed, Laura and I launched a survey of parking issues in the roads just outside the new Crouch End Controlled Parking Zone – as we were being inundated with complaints from residents.  We felt we had to do our own survey as the Council had broken their pledge to hold a consultation after the new CPZ was implemented.

We’ve now had several hundred responses from the roads bordering the Crouch End and Finsbury Park CPZs.  The results so far show:

• Three quarters of respondents say parking has got worse in the last 6 months
• 62% say they are now in favour of a CPZ – with many residents saying they have been forced to change their anti-CPZ views
• The vast majority of residents would want a CPZ to be operational for only 2 hours

These figures show that local people in roads such as Mount View, Ferme Park, Stapleton Hall, Granville and Quernmore, think the parking problem is getting even worse and want the Council to take action.  We are using the results to demand that the Council conduct a proper consultation with residents as soon as possible.  But we are also pledging to scrutinise any Council proposals for new parking restrictions, to ensure they are focused on solving the problem – not boosting Council coffers.

We will be closing the survey very soon to present the full results to the Council, so if you haven’t yet had your say please fill it out online as soon as possible (link here).  This parking mess is largely of the Council’s own making – and they need to listen to residents views on how to sort it out.

This week I got a call from an annoyed resident of Ridge Road about a large commercial vehicle that had been parked in the street for many months.  The resident had reported the vehicle to the Council, but got no response.  I took a look and contacted the appropriate department.  The tax disc has now expired so I think the Council will now be able to take action.

The parking problems in the area are very bad – so it really annoys residents when businesses use Stroud Green as a car park for their commercial vehicles.  But we’ve become a magnet for these vehicles now, because there are so many resident parking zones nearby.  When I first got elected as a councillor I tried to organise a some concerted action to move these vans – but it appears the Council’s powers are limited.  They say they can only remove these long-stay vehicles if they are out of tax, look unroadworthy or are above a certain size (i.e. a lorry).

A good solution might be for the Council to provide appropriate areas for vans to park – particularly for local residents running small ‘man with a van’ businesses, which are so vital to a community.  This is an issue that I know a number of different residents and councillors have raised with the Council – but the idea never gets taken up.  I think Haringey should try to be innovative for once and look into doing something that might help residents and local businesses.

In the last week we’ve launched our successful Stroud Green Parking & Travel Survey online – and had almost 100 responses in the first few days.  Added together with all the responses we’ve had door-to-door, this means we are beginning to get a good sample of what residents think about parking issues on different roads.

However, we still want to hear more views, so if you haven’t had chance yet please do complete the survey now.  It can be accessed here and only takes a few minutes to fill in all the questions.  In a few weeks time we will be presenting the results to the Council to encourage them to listen to residents views.