Residents and businesses voice opposition to experimental Wanstead parking scheme ahead of review

Alistair Kleebauer, Senior reporter Tuesday, March 19, 2013
12:10 PM

Councillors met with a barrage of criticism over an experimental parking scheme in Wanstead last night.

Public speaker after public speaker stood up at the area one committee meeting in Wanstead Church School, Church Path, Wanstead, to call for residents’ permit parking to be scrapped ahead of a review.

A controlled zone was introduced in Addison, Chaucer, Dangan and Spratt Hall Roads in April after residents complained about commuter parking, and permit parking was then extended into Church Path, Fitzgerald Road, Greenstone Mews, Voluntary Place and Wanstead Place, following further consultations with residents.

But Derek Inkpin, a partner at Wiseman Lee solicitors in Cambridge Park who lives in the Lake House estate, said his clients have been left with nowhere to park.

He told councillors: “I see at the top of Spratt Hall, Addison and Dangan Roads, blocks of bays empty.

“Why? Who does that benefit?

“Just listen to the local business people and bring in something sensible.”

Josee Gritten, of Overton Drive and a mother at Wanstead Church School, added that parents are being put off shopping in Wanstead High Street after dropping their children off.

She said: “You will not win on the long run with this. “Businesses will close down and people will lose their jobs.

“Parents come in their cars [to the school] to shop and that’s hundreds of pounds. It’s essential that people can come here.”

And the majority of artists involved with Art Trail Wanstead, who display their works in local businesses, are opposed to the scheme, according to the group’s chairman Tomasz Wlodarckyh.

But Cllr Thomas Chan said: “We have looked at making things workable for the businesses and residents.”

And Cllr Michelle Dunn added: “I still feel we put the right scheme in place.

“There is a compromise to be made. The whole year should have run without us tweaking it. Let us go away and take on the concerns and sit down with officers.”

The councillors will review the parking provision in the roads where the scheme was first introduced at their next meeting in May.

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