As reported in this month’s Lambeth Talk, the Council will be carrying out a review of all Controlled Parking Zones, starting in the North of the borough.
To keep up pressure for our Parking Zone QR to be included, local residents who have already sent in their formal letters of complaint to the Council and received replies, are now writing to the Ombudsman to ask them to investigate why Lambeth failed in their promise of a review back in 2009.
If you have sent your letters to Lambeth, and received their bulky envelope of documents in reply, you too might like to write to the Ombudsman. Find below a letter (kindly drafted by Sarah Dyer) that has been sent by several residents. Feel free to copy adding your name and address…
The Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry CV4 0EHRe: Local Authority Response to Request for Review of Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) in Brixton Hill ‘Q’, London Borough of Lambeth
Dear Sir, Madam,
I have recently completed Lambeth Borough Council’s formal complaints process relating to the above concern: please find enclosed a copy of the Corporate Complaints Department Stage 2 (final) response to me.
I am not satisfied with the final response to my complaint, so I am writing to ask for your assistance in reviewing the Council’s policy for the implementation of CPZs, particularly whether the Council:
A: has a specific policy relating to statutory reviews of such schemes and if not, should they have? and
B: if the Council has acted according to all the terms of that policy or not.
The background to my complaint is as follows:
A CPZ scheme was implemented in my neighbourhood early in 2006. The aim of the scheme was to cut down weekday commuter parking in residential streets. This was the first such scheme south of central Brixton and was modelled like a town centre scheme, with very long hours of operation and high permit (and parking fine) costs for both residents and visitors.
To assuage initial local concerns about the terms of the scheme not being suitable for a residential area (high costs, difficulty in accommodating visitors and trades-people etc.), a review was promised within 6 months of the original implementation. When this did not appear to have happened, local residents’ groups followed up with Lambeth Council and were told that “local representatives” had been formally consulted about the scheme shortly after its implementation, although neither local residents nor the ward councillors at the time have any memory of this consultation.
In 2014, after years of individual complaints and enquiries to Lambeth, over 600 residents from 9 streets in the neighbourhood signed a petition complaining about the terms of their CPZ and asking Lambeth Council to finally agree to review the scheme. We asked that the hours of our scheme be reduced and brought into line with more recently-introduced CPZs in neighbouring streets. Many of us then followed up with individual formal letters of complaint.
Lambeth Council’s response to my Stage 2 Complaint refers to a “Brixton Hill Zone Q 2nd Stage CPZ Consultation Report of 2009” and says that 1,232 consultation documents were sent out. This information seems to be some sort of diversion. I don’t believe it relates to my complaint at all, except to demonstrate that Lambeth may review parking schemes in some circumstances, perhaps. I checked the list of streets that were part of this 2009 consultation exercise: neither my street nor any other street that participated in our petition, for instance, were included. It is clear that despite previous assurances there has been no review of the now long-standing CPZ on my street or any of the streets in the surrounding area.
Lambeth’s Complaints Department explain the limited scope of that 2009 review on grounds of costs. It is not clear if there is a specific policy relating to these reviews. In any case, there is no explanation of the policy or rationale behind which areas qualify for a review and which don’t.
I would appreciate your assessment of this situation.
Your faithfully,
[your signature]
The article in Lambeth Talk reports that…
Seeking solutions to aid parking stress
Lambeth Council is taking action to address residents’ concerns about parking in the borough. With the growth of developments in recent years, finding somewhere to park has become more difficult.
A borough-wide study into parking will begin in April. The study will enable us to identify areas under most stress and take the action needed to relieve the problem. The study will be phased in two parts starting in April 2015.
The first six months will look at the North of the borough, which has
high levels of parking stress, and then, subject to finance, Lambeth will implement measures to reduce parking stress in this part of the borough.The second half of the study will consider the rest of the borough, in particular those areas without any CPZs. The study will be completed by April 2016.
For more information and to receive updates on this issue, sign up at www.lambeth.gov.uk/cpz