CPZ parking ‘cock up’ caused chaos for Clapton residents, councillors told

Hackney Town Hall, where there were angry scenes last night

Hackney Council “cocked up” a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in the Clapton area when officers left seven roads without controls, councillors were angrily told at a Town Hall meeting last night.

There were rowdy scenes in the chamber, with enraged residents interrupting councillors and shouting at them before storming out.

Ian McNicol, who lives on one of the streets inside what he described as a parking free-for-all “island”, said disabled residents had taken to placing bins in the road to try and protect their spaces.

People’s lives had been made “hell” because of the changes, he added.

Some of the problems stem from residents of streets inside the new CPZ area parking their second cars in streets just outside of this zone to avoid having to pay a permit fee, he believes.

Cars had been “displaced” from surrounding streets into the small pocket where there was no CPZ, he added.

“We’ve got a municipal parking lot on our doorstep,” McNicol said. “From 7am in the morning on a Monday until 7.30pm on a Friday evening we’ve just got cars going in and out all the time and there’s no space for residents to park.

“If you leave the area, you won’t be able to park in it, and the only place you will be able to park legally is in Chatsworth Road on parking metres half a mile away – and for only two hours.

“The officers did not think through this partial extension of the residents’ parking and leaving only seven streets out of 29 free for parking. They just did not think it through.”

He told councillors: “You’ve cocked it up big time here.”

Outside the meeting residents told the Hackney Citizen they were now desperate for the CPZ to be extended to cover their seven streets: Fletching Road, Thornby Road, Wattisfield Road, Chailey Street, Cornthwaite Road, Cotesbach Road, and Mildenhall Road.

But one council insider suggested the only reason it was not rolled out there in the first place was that a majority of residents in these streets had initially been opposed to just such a move.

In any case, it will be months before this can now happen because of the statutory timescale for communicating information about a new CPZ extension to residents – a delay that will almost certainly cause further woes.

Since the implementation of the CPZ changes in Clapton in the run up to Christmas there has been “growing tension, altercations and damage to cars due to frustration caused by the poor implementation of the extended zone”, according to a deputation brought to the council.

On one occasion an ambulance was unable to get down Chatsworth Road because the road was so chock-a-block with cars.

At the time the council was even forced to paint emergency double yellow lines on the eastern side of Chatsworth Road between Millfields Road and Lea Bridge Road to try and ease the chaos.

Councillor Feryal Demirci, the politician in charge of parking, said: “We have consulted the roads that initially rejected parking controls.

“We are currently analysing the data from the consultation and hope to have the final report approved by February.

“If controls are supported, residents and businesses will be able to buy permits from April 2017 with controls being introduced in May 2017.”

Where CPZs were “imperfect” they would be “refined”, Cllr Demirci told the meeting.

The new cycling superhighway near Butterfield Green in Stoke Newington was another transport issue which led to flashpoints between councillors and residents last night.

The partial closure of some roads in the area to cars had led to a build up of traffic along the A10 and in surrounding residential streets, according to people who brought a deputation about this to the council.

Among them was the mother of a schoolboy who was knocked down by a hit-and-run cyclist while he was crossing the CS1 route.