06:40 a.m. on Capel Road – if there’s a problem, it isn’t commuters parking for the Overground
So that the council’s officers can be prepared at the drop-in session on Thursday, here are the questions I will be asking about the proposed extension to the Forest Gate residents parking zone (RPZ):
- How many residents have requested this and over what period were the requests made?
- To what extent have local councillors been involved in developing the proposals and the decision to hold a consultation?
- If I have a permit can I park anywhere in the RPZ, or just on my street or my bit of the zone?
- Will parking bays be one big bay or marked individual bays?
- What guarantees are there that the free first permit per household will continue to be free in perpetuity?
- Can a resident’s application for a permit be declined? If so, on what grounds?
- Who within the local authority can access the database of residents’ vehicle ownership details and on what terms?
- Will residents’ data be sold or otherwise made available to third parties?
- Has an assessment been made of the impact on local shops and businesses, particularly as a result of the Sebert Road extension?
- Are residents on streets adjoining the RPZ extension, but not part of it, being consulted? If not, why not?
- Why are there no public meetings being held, just a single ‘drop-in session’ at The Gate?
- When will the outcome of the consultation be known and will all of the responses be published?
and unlucky 13 – if, after a period of operation, residents decide they don’t like the RPZ and want it removed, what mechanism exists to request this?
UPDATE 1:
Two excellent additional questions via a resident in a street not included in the proposal but likely to be affected by it:
- How will Newham monitor fraud, especially regarding the misuse of visitor permits; and
- How did the parking design team come to the conclusion that the far ends of Sebert, Hampton and Osborne Roads, which are more than half a mile from the town centre should be included in the proposal but not side roads in Forest Gate village (between Sebert and Capel Roads) which are much closer?
UPDATE 2:
From Newham council’s Parking Policy on RPZ consultations: “there must be a minimum of 20% of respondents, where 55% or more must be in favour for a scheme to progress.”
So another question:
- Is the 20% is counted across the whole proposed extension or area-by-area: if the Woodgrange Estate part of the scheme gets a big response but the Capel Road/Woodford Road/Chestnut Avenue bit gets none, do we still end up with an RPZ in our area, or does it just go ahead on Woodgrange?
forestgatedotnet 
Judging by some of the tweets I’ve seen, I suspect the answer to #2 is “none”
As to where the cars come from, I know when I lived on Curwen, many people from the Eagle and Child flats used to park on Curwen Ave. And I’m pretty sure they are barred from doing so, it was part of the planning permission.
One aspect that is not noticed when the RPZ is installed is the reduction of available parking space. This is caused by the yellow lines being placed upto 10 metres from the apex of a corner, also drive or slipways will have 1 metre either side of the driveway yellow lined whether this are working or defunked. Bends in the road may also get yellow lined. The nursery at the top of chestnut ave may get lines as it is on the and a school of sorts.
At the begining of chestnut ave is brettels wood turners who have had problems with deliverys for years due to double yellow lines and daft parking attendents not being able the differents between a delivery and someone parking.
In my street, l estimate we lost between 10-15% of parking space.