The reasoning behind this proposal is illogical. The council statement says:‘ prioritise customer parking outside shops, allowing for more flexibility on length of stay encourage turnover for local businesses making parking fairer and more consistent around the borough encourage more people to walk, wheel, cycle or use public transport when they can ‘Of these, the key one is the last one. Since Stop and Shop parking is there to enable passing trade, making it more complicated will actually decrease turnover.What do they mean by making parking fairer and more consistent around the borough? There are areas where there are no parking restrictions at all. It’s nonsense.One wonders how they will police this. Half the traffic wardens in the borough are on strike over union membership and the council isn’t engaging with them. There was a noisy protest outside the last council meeting.Apart from the oft-touted climate emergency (and Ealing council remains very quiet on Heathrow expansion plans) the only reason this is being proposed is to increase parking revenues. There last figures I’ve obtained from the council, for 2022-23, show that it made a profit (called a surplus) of £19.2million from parking, including CPZ permit charges (which have increased hugely since then). It’s just another tax, and a cynically imposed one at that.
Simon Hayes ● 17d