Forum Topic

Census data from 2021 shows that 63.2% of households in the borough of Ealing own at least one car or van. It is probably wrong in any case to make a binary distinction between motor vehicle owners and non-motor vehicle owners as the latter still can still generate a lot of road traffic depending on life style. On the issue of traffic wardens and targets, you have to have some sympathy for the council as issuing tickets is the primary function of staff and does need to be tracked. However, the council's claim that the dispute is between Greener Ealing and the union is laughable they (or more accurately we) own 100% of the company and if it isn't democratically accountable there is a major problem. The council therefore needs to be absolutely scrupulous in demonstrating that the primary purpose of parking enforcement isn't revenue raising and the evidence appears to be that they can't currently do this. It is becoming increasingly apparent that this is a vital source of extra revenue for a cash strapped council but this is a very dangerous dependency. It effectively operates as a very regressive tax as those who pay the most tend to be those who use a vehicle as part of the way they earn a living. These kinds of jobs are not the highest paid. These days non-ownership of a car is often a sign of relative privilege rather than disadvantage as it is an option available to desk-based professionals. The current strategy of enforcements seems to be targeting easy wins where wardens know signage is confusing and punishing de minimis offences rather than concentrating on genuinely anti-social parking. The council urgently needs to set out priorities for parking enforcement to return to its original pledge that taking it in-house would tackle hot-spot areas where safety is being compromised by bad parking. This policy would deem it a success if no tickets were issue at school pick up times for instance as the presence of wardens would have deterred it. Where wardens are subject to intimidation, the council should never tolerate this and support its staff in their role of making us safer and ensuring that everyone has to follow the rules.


Gordon Southwell ● 63d

Those who grew up in this district may well recall that the key justification for building Gurnell pool away from Ealing Centre as" Ealings town Pool" was to allow parking and access for all under the 'Sport for All' banner so the Longfield Halls Pools all closed.Form many it was a fair old bus ride and no longer in a central area so often more than one bus ride or a pretty horrible walk and an up hill cycle ride in all directions post swim. So only for the super fit.  But the big bonus was a large free car park.It was pushed long and hard to win over the users of Longfield and Acton Pools, even though they were old victorian and rather dated and unable to cope with numbers.  Acton at least got reprieved as a consequence that Gurnell never really came up to scratch with its promise including being a mere inch too short for Top level competition.But its real decline was parallel to parking charges and time restrictions which became excessive. Like high streets reducing parking and increasing charges has killed passing trade and impulse purchases and larger purchases and thus fallen prey to Amazon.Brentford High St is the same it has been killed almost stone dead by a car park far too far from the shops and the removal of almost all of the stop and shop facilities and the removal of short term free parking of 20 mins.  It is impossible to even stop and buy a sandwich without 20 mins driving around to find a 5 min space or any space within a reasonable distance.  Even going to my office its often a 15 min plus walk from a parking space for a 10 min pick up of work.It is little wonder that 90% of the clients we had have all upped sticks and moved away...well away along with the decent quality jobs.I wonder where swimming pools fit in to the 20 min scheme of things  It certainly did even when bus services hit an all time low in the 1980s. It's impossible now unless you are super fit. Or indeed where and what all these wonderful jobs just 20 mins away are?

Raymond Havelock ● 68d