Swinging penalty fines for parking round the corner from your own home due to be enforced by Tower Hamlets Council from October 1 have been suspended.
Permit-holders won’t get a ticket slapped on their windscreen for leaving the car in the neighbouring mini zone after the enforcement authority made a U-turn at last night’s online council meeting.
More than 6,000 protesting car-owners signed a petition about “draconian measures” banning them from leaving vehicles all day in what could be the next zone to your immediate home area.
Cllr Andrew Wood happened to stumble on the proposed ban when told of “regulation changes” on the council’s website—and even then took 15 minutes to fathom out what the jargon meant.
“There was no public consultation,” he told councillors. “We should stop this or put fix notices ‘on hold’ during the Covid emergency, not force through incremental changes step by step.”
Protesters claimed the move signed off by the mayor without cabinet or full council approval would lead to “increased loneliness in this pandemic period” and make isolation worse for the elderly whose family wouldn’t be able to visit without risking a hefty fine.
The measures were brought in to curb commuter parking, the meeting heard, but it had a backlash on residents.
Cllr Motin Uz-Zaman warned: “People need to park near their homes or another area to get to the shops, especially in this difficult time.”
The mayor reacting to the “strength of public feeling” suspended the fines for all-day parking in the next zone to your home and put it back to his next cabinet meeting. There would be no penalty notices on October 1.
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