RESIDENTS were celebrating a victory this week after Town Hall chiefs backtracked in their plans to ban parking permits on an East End estate. Neighbours in Gaverick Mews, off Westferry Road on the Isle of Dogs have been fighting to keep their permits

RESIDENTS were celebrating a victory this week after Town Hall chiefs backtracked in their plans to ban parking permits on an East End estate.

Neighbours in Gaverick Mews, off Westferry Road on the Isle of Dogs have been fighting to keep their permits since March after they were told by Tower Hamlets council their estate was a 'car-free zone'.

Residents living on the estate, run by East Homes Association, insisted they had been using parking permits since they moved there eight years ago.

But when they tried to renew them earlier this year they were told the estate had always been car-free as part of a Tower Hamlets' policy to encourage greener transport and they would have to park on Westferry Road or Tanner Street.

Campaigners gave a deputation and Blackwall and Cubitt Town ward councillor Tim Archer submitted a report to Tower Hamlets Overview and Scrutiny Committee in April in protest to the move and officers agreed to look into the development.

And this week it emerged officers had written to residents to confirm the properties had not originally been advertised as being car-free and therefore those already on the estate should not be expected to adhere to the policy.

Cllr Archer, who insists neighbours have faced similar problems on different estates in Tower Hamlets, said: "I am pleased that residents have been able to put their case forward and the council has backed down and admitted a mistake has been made.

"However it should not have to get to this stage where residents have to give a deputation in order to push the council into delivering a common sense solution.

In a letter to Cllr Archer, Development Manager David Williams said the council would be discussing with East Homes about varying the car-free policy and once that is done residents with existing parking permits will be able to renew them.

The process is expected to take eight weeks.