A short campaign video posted last month on behalf of Forhad Hussain, the Labour mayoral candidate for Newham, has left many local residents and pedestrian safety advocates deeply concerned.
The clip, filmed in the Plaistow area, features Hussain standing alongside a local resident named Bernie, who cheerfully recalls how pavement parking enforcement was successfully hobbled — not once, but twice — with the help of obliging Labour councillors.
Let’s be clear about the legal context. Pavement parking is banned throughout all 32 London boroughs under the Greater London (General Purposes) Act 1974. The Highway Code is unambiguous: drivers must not park partially or wholly on the pavement in London. This is not a grey area. It is not a matter of “common sense.” It is the law.
And yet, in this campaign video, Hussain stands nodding along as Bernie recounts how, around 2011, when enforcement officers began doing their jobs and issuing tickets to drivers parking on the pavement, Hussain intervened. According to Bernie, an email was issued that caused enforcement officials to “step back” and allow residents to continue parking with wheels on the pavement. When the “problem” re-emerged in 2021 and tickets began to be issued again, fellow Labour councillor Simon Rush — currently representing Plaistow and standing as a candidate for Custom House in the upcoming elections — stepped in once more to make “common sense prevail.” The video presents all of this as a success story. Hussain says nothing to contradict it.
Bernie explains that for years, “everyone agreed” it was perfectly acceptable to park on the pavement, provided enough space was left for pedestrians to pass. Everyone? Everyone, apparently, except the elderly residents, disabled pedestrians, wheelchair users, and parents with pushchairs who were forced to step off the kerb and into the road to get past. Their agreement was not sought. And what Bernie dismisses as “officialdom jumping in” was simply council enforcement officers doing precisely what they are employed — and legally obliged — to do. It is shocking that a prospective Mayor of Newham appears to share that contempt for enforcement of the law.
This deserves serious scrutiny. A politician using his elected position to pressure enforcement officers into ignoring a clear and longstanding law is not “common sense.” It is an abuse of influence. It puts the convenience of a handful of residents above the safety and independence of everyone else who uses those pavements — including, it should be noted, the children and parents walking to the primary school at the end of the very road where this video was filmed.
Vehicles parked on the footway obstruct and inhibit the independence of many vulnerable people, especially older or disabled people with visual or mobility impairments. When pedestrians — including families with pushchairs — are forced into the road and into traffic, pavement parking is simply dangerous. These are not abstract concerns. 73% of people aged 65 and over polled by Living Streets said pavement parking was a problem for them in their local area, and 50% of older people said they would be more likely to walk outside if pavements were clear of vehicles parked on them.
But there is a detail that makes this video particularly extraordinary. Throughout the clip, Forhad Hussain is filmed standing in front of a garage. Bernie’s garage. Bernie — the resident lamenting the terrible inconvenience of not being allowed to park on the pavement — has a garage. Where he can park his car. He does not need to two wheels on the pavement at all. And if Hussain had turned his head just a little to the right, he would have seen it.
It is hard to know what is more troubling: that a prospective Mayor of Newham appears to believe that pressuring enforcement officers to ignore the law is something worth boasting about in a campaign video, or that the entire premise rests on a parking ‘problem’ that never existed in the first place.
Newham has tens of thousands of residents who walk its streets daily. Many of them are elderly. Many use wheelchairs or pushchairs. Many carry heavy loads of shopping. Many are children walking to school. All of them deserve pavements that are free of obstruction — pavements that are, quite simply, for people. A mayoral candidate should be championing their right to safe, accessible streets, not producing campaign material that celebrates undermining enforcement of laws designed to protect them.
Voters in Newham deserve to know where their candidates stand on pedestrian safety. This video, unfortunately, makes Forhad Hussain’s position rather plain.
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