Parking: One week on, how’s it going?

It’s a week since the introduction of parking restrictions to Wanstead High Street and surrounding streets.

  • Shops on the High Street are guarded about whether there has been an impact. At least one reported the quietest day this year so far, but another has said business has been good. Anecdotally, the turnover of cars parking for a few minutes on the High Street seems to have significantly increased – which if true would be widely welcomed.

  • The council has voted to cut the cost of the £45 residents’ parking permit to £20. This is welcome – especially since in at least one neighbouring borough, a single car permit is given to residents for nothing.

  • While there have been parking tickets in evidence, there have also been a number of warning notices for cars parked incorrectly.

  • Donna Mizzi, one of the WeWantSay group, says: “Bear a thought for the elderly infirm or slightly immobile people who now can’t park at Wanstead Library – not even to obtain assistance in filling in a tricky online Blue Badge form.  Now from Mon-Saturday, Spratt Hall Road is filled with residents’ parking and only parking via the phone. Even the library car park is RingGo only.  Juggling phone and credit cards and trying to hear the instructions is beyond the ability of many slightly disabled people … many of whom don’t own a mobile.”

  • Wansteadium reader Handsai, having received a warning ticket, warns people not to think they can park on the single yellow lines outside the URC at the top of Nightingale Lane, saying: “It is very confusing as these single yellow lines have a different restriction imposed (8.30-6.30) no parking.”
  • Many residents parking streets now seem much clearer of cars during the day, which will be welcomed by householders. Presumably the spaces were being taken by commuters?
  • Purely anecdotally –  but has the reduction in parked cars on Nightingale Lane led to it becoming a bit of a rat run? Some cars seem to be coming down it very fast.

  • The WeWantSay group is not convinced by the changes, and says council documents reveal a projected £700,000 increase in revenue from parking, though acknowledges this would not be raised from Wanstead alone. It is demanding clarification from the council leaders about this money.

  • Wansteadium has failed to get answers to its two key questions about the parking changes – ie. firstly, what are the success measures for the scheme and when will they be judged? And secondly, what monitoring about the impact on Wanstead High Street businesses is planned. If anyone from Redbridge Council wishes to answer these two questions we’d be delighted.

  • Comments on this post will remain open for the foreseeable future for anyone wishing to add comments about their own experiences. We will revisit points raised.

41 thoughts on “Parking: One week on, how’s it going?”

  2. I walk to the High Street 95% of the time but the free pay and display for 30 minutes worked a treat. Used it the other day at 9.30 whereas if I’d wanted to do this previously on the High Street, I’d have had to pay at the Grove Park car park

  3. I’ve paid £600 pounds for me and my wife to have a business permit.
    All my staff drive to work as they don’t live near a train station so they also need a permit……it’s not fair why local residents pay £20 and local businesss pay £300. It’s definitely effected our business but I do understand it just had to happen as parking got ridiculous in Wanstead.

    1. Clearly, the parking situation has worsened for some, which is unfortunate. I consider myself one of the lucky ones, as for the first time in ten years I can come home at any time of day, and park outside my house in Redbridge Lane West, and not have to go searching for a space, sometimes five minutes walk away from home because of commuters parking near the station.
      I’m also happy to pay for this privilege, as I regard it as part of the cost of owning a car in a city. As for cost, my son lives in Brighton, at least 15 minutes walk from the station, and their parking restrictions are seven days a week, 9am to 8pm, and each permit costs £130 per year!!

  4. “Donna Mizzi, one of the WeWantSay group, says: “Bear a thought for the elderly infirm or slightly immobile people who now can’t park at Wanstead Library – not even to obtain assistance in filling in a tricky online Blue Badge form. Now from Mon-Saturday, Spratt Hall Road is filled with residents’ parking and only parking via the phone. Even the library car park is RingGo only. Juggling phone and credit cards and trying to hear the instructions is beyond the ability of many slightly disabled people … many of whom don’t own a mobile.”

    DRIVEL!! Absolute drivel!! Spend your time helping them then rather than use them as an excuse for an argument!!!

    1. I must admit I also find this particular argument unconvincing to say the lease . The “slightly disabled/immobile” looking for a parking space can presumably competently drive a vehicle on the road with all the huge safety issues involved, but apparently filling an online form or using a credit card and owning a phone is beyond them.

        1. It isn’t compulsory. Nor is there a right to park where you want for free. Driving and parking is done on license with restrictions. One of one which, in Wanstead, is paying for parking.

    2. It’s not a question of ‘drivel’ – it’s about fairness and being inclusive to ALL. RingGo for those who wish to use it is great, but there should be the option to use Pay & Display with cash too, and especially so in public services like our libraries and open spaces. Why should it be compulsory to have a mobile/data/app/credit card – just to park. It excludes and discriminates against those, who – for whatever reason – prefer to have a cash option. It’s a simple question of fairness.

  5. I’m genuinely happy for all the people who can now park outside their house. That is fair.
    For those of us on Hermon Hill life is frustrating and dangerous. We look down Nelson road and Sylvan Road to see empty space after empty space. We are now forced to park on Hermon Hill itself. Cars wizz past at 30+mph. There will be an accident soon. It would be so much safer if we could buy a permit for WD zone but Redbridge don’t allow it. Why?

    1. When walking through side streets in South Woodford during a week day, I see many empty parking spaces. With the Residents’ Only Permit holders not needing them all during the day, they are sitting there empty – and no one else can use them. In effect, these roads have become exclusive private parking areas! I don’t know what the answer is, but the ‘1 hour commuter parking’ yellow line worked a treat previously and gave at least a little room for manoeuvre.

  6. I am elderly and incapacitated. I am now not able to visit Wanstead library or park by the other end of Christchurch green to give my dog a run while I sit on a bench to watch him. My life has clearly changed.

      2. Christchurch Green, like many of Redbridge’s open spaces, follows a ‘Dogs on Lead by Direction’ policy – which means, unless otherwise stated, that well controlled dogs can indeed be let off-lead.
        If a Redbridge Official deems it necessary, they can ask you to leash your dog and you must comply, but otherwise, Anonymous can quite lawfully continue to excercise their dog in the park, should they so wish.

  7. We now struggle to park outside our property as a whole host of cars we have never seen before have taken all the spaces and never seen to move. Vans and what are quite clearly taxis are now just being left for days at a time. It was literally an overnight change as the residents Parkin get care in. We are now very uncertain what we’ll do if we come home one day and find all the spaces gone.

    1. Welcome to what was our world….I’m genuinely sorry but what you’ve described is what life was like for us living off the High St before the parking restrictions. It was an absolute nightmare and it annoys me when people say there was no problem. …there was.

  8. Many of the cars I used to see parked on Nightingale Lane are now parked in Eastway or Leicester Road.

    The changes to Spratt Hall Road has resulted in Woodbine Place being full in the evenings, so more nursery parents picking up are parking on the double yellows where the buses turn around.

  9. I thought it was pretty decent of LBR to leave letters on cars last week that had parked illegally, without a ticket etc & not impose a financial penalty. There are, and will be teething issues….that’s inevitable for pragmatic people like me. Why don’t you ever praise this Council or atleast acknowledge that you misjudged residents views on the new parking arrangements?

  11. We’re just beyond the parking restrictions and are noticing new cars parked along our road during the day…

    Be good to hear from the high street businesses if it’s had any impact on their trade.

  12. I notice that the parking spaces on the high street are quite extensive, meaning that the total n of cars able to park at any one time is lower. I imagine turnover is higher so total n of cars parked during a day is probably higher.

  13. As a resident of a road just outside the scheme, parking has suddenly got a whole lot harder. I also find it ridiculous to see roads within the scheme so empty most of the day: what a waste when a one-hour restriction would have stopped the commuter problem. Most importantly, I very much hope the shops don’t suffer.
    The primary aim of the scheme is clearly income generation rather than parking management, but in a context where local government funding is constantly being cut I can see why the council are reaching for this method of revenue raising

  14. We are a street of no restrictions in a sea of restrictions and have cars doing laps waiting for a space to become available. Residents resort regularly to leaving their bins out in front of their house if they need to use their car Monday to Friday. It has always been bad (I voted to have permits but clearly was outnumbered in the street) but is quite ridiculous at the moment. Several vans treat our street as a permanent car park only making matters worse. I suppose we are the lucky recipients of all those whose regular parking spots are now permit only…

  15. I have had a car parked outside my house for 2weeks, it now has a parking fine on it but it’s still there. Either been left while they’ve gone on holiday or it’s been stolen and dumped.

  16. Even more commuters and shoppers now parking down our Road caused by displacement from this crappy designed parking scheme. i.e. its got worse. First we were in the proposed parking scheme area, and then suddenly we weren’t and not told why and not even consulted, everyone on our street wants better parking controls but not consulted and then excluded out of the blue. All becoming a bit of a dogs dinner, fed up with Athwal & his Labour Council administration flip flopping all the bloody time and now making it worse for our road. Dragging Wanstead downhill…

    1. A number of roads were removed after complaints. Those roads on the perimeter appear to want to be included so not sure how many of the complainers actually lived on the affected roads.

      Either way, if you want it extended to your road, ask redbridge. There’s a number of people doing this and I expect a 2nd wave of roads in a year or so.

  18. Friends involved reporting lovely empty streets but living in the first street outside the new parking zone we know where all the cars are. Our once reasonably clear road is being used as a car park 24/7. The parking issues have not been solved, they have just been moved.

  19. There will be a 2nd wave of those on the perimeter who also want.

    Not representative but a small snapshot from the above could be summarised as those in the new area like it, those just outside want it and those who don’t live here but are upset now they have to pay as they can’t simply park where they like anymore. Sorry guys, we live here and we suffer because of it. Either find alternative transport or pay a tiny fee. Bit tired of the “Waaay waaay I want to park where I like and don’t care about anybody else” mentality.

  20. As, so say Redbridge Council, this is about traffic management and not a money-making scheme, how about these solutions to some of the above irritations:
    ● Include every Wanstead street in the same CPZ, with some P&D for visitors.
    ● Issue every Wanstead property with 1 yearly free vehicle permit. Charge on an upward scale for 2 cars or more. Issue residents with a realistic number of free visitor permits and charge for any extra.
    ● Have some free but time limited spaces near schools/nurseries for pick ups etc.

    Simplistic, perhaps, but not money-making and potentially traffic-managing. Waltham Forest appear to have something along these lines.

    2. S Hill – free first permits.

      There is no free – every part of the scheme has to be paid for somehow. Do the second car fees then subsidise the ‘free’ first car permit?
      As an Aldersbrook resident swamped by the overspill from the Capel Road a charge of £20 sounds pretty good

  23. Beware of parking in Woodbine Place adjacent to the children’s playground where there is a dropped kerb (area marked keep clear for no apparent reason- doesn’t give access to property or the park) and has only a single yellow line – the double yellow stopping just short. I accept that it might be for wheelchair etc users but I am pretty sure not every such dropped kerb is marked ‘ keep clear’.
    The offence is code 27: ‘kerb lowered level with a road surface.
    Often parked there no problem but just cost me £55.
    Possible entrapment?

  24. Can’t wait for permits to come to aldersbrook and pleased that parking on the high street has become easily available. I’ve stopped and shopped more regularly since pay & display started. I don’t understand why people that work there think they shldnt have to pay for parking. There is no where in London that this happens anymore. Start living in the real world!

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