Hackney Downs residents have voiced their growing concerns over parking issues in the area.
Residents of Benthal Road, which currently has no restrictions on parking, described their situation as “a nightmare” at a recent ward forum.
A small majority of the street’s inhabitants voted against plans to introduce a controlled parking zone in 2012. Those in favour of regulations are now calling for councillors to reverse that decision.
One resident said: “I can never park outside my home and my wife has to park three streets away with our two young children. I’m forced to park in a different postcode.”
He added: “We have rung and e-mailed the council repeatedly and nothing has happened. It’s so disappointing. We feel ignored.”
Hackney Downs’ councillors stated their intention to scale back their ‘street-by-street’ approach to parking, which displaces traffic from one road into another, and promised to work towards a more creative solution.
Following the meeting, Councillor Rick Muir tweeted: “Parking issues are very difficult but we came out with some really constructive ways forward.”
Vincent Stops, a Labour councillor in Hackney Central, replied: “It’s not difficult. You can either have managed or unmanaged streets.”
A Freedom of Information request to Hackney Council revealed that they collected more than £3m in parking fines in 2013, having handed out 82,633 penalties for parking violations.
Image: Mark Critchley
