Car owners are facing tougher restrictions next month that stop them parking more than three hours in the day outside their immediate mini zone when Tower Hamlets brings in its new rule.

%image(14918436, type="article-full", alt="Map of 'mini zone' boundaries to ban all-day parking from September 1. Google map")

Furious drivers are bombarding the town hall to upload e-petitions onto the council’s website to stop the scheme that was announced without consultation.

The move was only spotted when it popped up on the website in a brief notice about a “change” to parking regulations from September 1.

A cross party petition is being set up by Isle of Dogs former Tory Andrew Wood and Mile End’s Labour councillor Puru Miah after they managed to decipher what the “change” meant.

“This will impact a lot of people,” Cllr Wood told the East London Advertiser. “The problem if you’re on a mini zone boundary is not being sure where exactly the line is drawn, which doesn’t matter at present if you’re in the same general zone. It needs explanation.

“Some car owners who can’t find a space in their own turning won’t be allowed to park even close by.”

%image(14918436, type="article-full", alt="Map of 'mini zone' boundaries to ban all-day parking from September 1. Google map")

Cllr Wood sent an application for an e-petition more than a week ago which still hadn’t appeared on the website, because he found there was “a queue of applications” all on the same subject, so all the petition applicants have to be contacted to join together.

So Cllr Wood has joined up with Cllr Miah with their online petition demanding the change limiting all-day parking to single mini-zones be delayed until “proper publicity” and writing to all permit holders with maps — not just changing the website.

Working-class communities disproportionately affected by Covid have older people relying on help from relatives with cars, it points out. So an equality impact assessment before the new rule comes in is being demanded, as a change in parking “constitutes a reduction in public services” so an assessment is needed by law.

The council wants to stop commuters driving to the station within their wider zone and parking all day to go to work. They would no longer be able to drive to Mile End station in zone B2 to catch the Tube into town, for example, if they live in zones B1 and B3 as they can now.

Nor will anyone in zones A1, A2, A3, A5 or A6 be allowed to park at Bethnal Green tube station—because that’s zone A4.

%image(14918437, type="article-full", alt="Planning Forum chairman James Frankcom... "It's vital that the people of Spitalfields tell us what they see for our furture." Picture: Mike Brooke")

But worst off all, protesters say, is anyone in the tightly-packed zone A5 around Arnold Circus and Club Row won’t be allowed to leave their cars in zones A1 or A2 just around the corner in Sclater Street or Columbia Road if they can’t find a space on their doorstep.

Restrictions vary from mini zone to mini zone, depending on where you are.

It is often confusing within a mini zone like A6 Whitechapel and Spitalfields, around Commercial Street and Brick Lane. Permits operate here Monday to Friday 8.30am-7pm and Sunday 8.30am-2pm, plus restrictions on residents’ bays in certain streets as late as 10pm, seven days a week including Sunday, where the council earns parking revenue from Brick Lane’s night economy.

Other zones have restrictions 8.30am-5.30pm weekdays, leaving weekends free.