| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Grove Park CPZ again | |
| Posted by: | Dan Murphy | |
| Date/Time: | 07/09/15 08:19:00 |
| Brendan is correct - EVERYONE in the W4 3 postcode (GP) should receive a consultation. The reason for this is REALLY important, and it is why EVERYONE should bother to respond. Following the 2-road CPZ, all the adjacent roads naturally suffered the immediate displacement from a very large number of cars. As a result (and as we all predicted, despite the traffic department telling us "there will be minimal displacement" - where did they think all the cars were going to park then?) residents in those roads suddenly lodged petitions and requests for a CPZ in their road, which would have the effect of displacing the cars into the next roads, and so on. On several previous occasions (going back many years), the council policy had always been very clear, and available on the LBH website: "We will never implement any CPZ into one or two roads, as all this does is displace cars into neighbouring roads. Any CPZ must be on an area wide basis, or not at all". But when the council realised that overwhelming feelings of GP residents was AGAINST any CPZ, they quietly removed this policy from their website and simply implemented the 2-road CPZ and then sat back and waited for the requests for further road-by-road requests to come rolling in. Which, of course, they did, as they suffered the effects of displacement from Park & Staveley Roads. The traffic department then proposed running a consultation with ONLY those roads who had requested a CPZ in their road.. of course, they would all say yes. BUT our Area Forum made a very clear policy decision that any consultation on CPZ extension must include ALL AFFECTED ROADS. Not simply the roads which had asked for it. And it was now clear that this meant ALL residents in GP, not simply those roads which were asking for their own CPZ. Despite this, the traffic department went ahead and sent consultation papers ONLY to the roads which had asked for CPZ. They tried to get around the Area Forum ruling by allowing other GP residents to object or give their views via the LBH website. Of course, they never publicised this web facility, so the only people who actually knew about the consultation were those roads which had asked for CPZ. This is how the Traffic Department operates. Luckily, the Area Forum got pretty cheesed off at this obvious attempt to circumvent the correct procedure, and called a public meeting to discuss the matter. The result was that the flawed limited consultation was discarded (at considerable cost, which we all paid for). Nobody in the traffic department was ever disciplined for this gross and deliberate breach of process, of course. The Area Forum issued a clear instruction to the traffic department that they must issue consultation documents to ALL AFFECTED residents, and made it clear that this meant ALL GP residents, as it was now beyond any argument that a CPZ in one road (eventually) affects ALL local residents as the displacement ripples move out. The traffic department (reluctantly) agreed to this. This is the latest consultation which everyone in GP should be receiving now. But the traffic department knows that only a tiny minority of residents can be bothered to respond to such consultations. They are relying on the fact that only the residents in those roads who have asked for their own CPZ will respond. Other roads will take a look at it and say "this doesn't affect me, I won't bother responding". And this is why it is critical that everyone responds. Otherwise, the traffic department can safely say "a majority of responses received were in favour of a CPZ". They are hoping that the vast majority of residents across the wider GP will not bother to respond, and to be honest they are probably right, based on previous responses. If the traffic department are right, then the responses received will be in favour of a CPZ in these few roads. They know only those people will bother to respond. Neighbouring roads will then find their roads totally crammed with displaced cars, but it will be too late for them, and too late for the rest of GP. This is the opportunity for everyone in GP to respond and make their views known. Let's just hope that people can be bothered, the council are relying on widespread apathy. |