At the November meeting of Greenwich Council, Eltham Councillor Spencer Drury asked the Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainability and Transport about the failure to deliver a final plan for the proposed Eltham Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ). In response to Spencer’s question the Cabinet Member appeared to suggest that despite not yet seeing a report she was opposed to the Eltham CPZ and, despite being pressed on it, failed to provide a final date for the decision to be taken.
In his question, Spencer highlighted that in May 2021, Eltham North and West Councillors were informed that the timescale for the introduction of the Eltham Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) would be as follows:
- April 2021 – re-design and various surveys undertaken
- June 2021 – consultation and Traffic Management Order process to commence
- July 2021 – analysis of the outcome of Consultation to be completed
- August 2021 – possible completed of Making of the Traffic Management Order
- September 2021 – possible Implementation/Go Live – subject to feedback and possible further design change
It became apparent in August that the Council had fallen behind this schedule so, having failed to get answers to basic questions, Spencer submitted a Freedom of Information request and was informed that the Council would not release the results of the consultation as:
“The Council’s senior managers are currently assessing the results received and have not yet formulated the final response. The requested information will be produced at a later date.”
To this day, six months after the deadline, no analysis of the consultation results has been published. When questioned by Spencer, the Cabinet Member suggested that it was possible to see the strength of opposition to the CPZ proposals ‘on the website consultation’, however, this is not the case as there is no public site for the Eltham CPZ proposals. It is possible that the Cabinet Member’s confusion results from her focus on the Horn Park Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) which seemed to form the bulk of her answer in the Council meeting itself. (You can see the response on the webcast at 1 hr 39 mins and 50 seconds)
Many shops on the Tudor Parade (like the Tudor Barn) are fiercely opposed to the Council’s all day parking restrictions for the surrounding area. Spencer and Charlie have both met with business owners, including those at the Tudor Barn who are pictured here.
The Cabinet Member also failed to provide a final date for the analysis of the consultation and the plans for the Eltham CPZ to be published. The only response from the Cabinet Member with regards to a deadline was “A final report on the outcome of the consultation is currently being finalised for consideration by me.”
It has to be said that the farce surrounding the Council’s introduction of an Eltham CPZ has been going on far too long. Its origins lie in some bad decisions about new CPZs made in 2015 which needed fixing (like the introduction of parking charges on the western section of Glenlea Road where there are no residents and now no cars which have been forced onto neighbouring roads like Eltham Park Gardens). This particular attempt to fix a six year old mistake is now well behind schedule and in expressing opposition before even reading an analysis of the consultation responses, you have to worry that the Council simply isn’t listening to residents. Maybe the Cabinet Member should read the responses, as while many of them were indeed strongly opposed to the CPZ plans (especially around the Tudor Parade shops and the Progress Estate) some of them suggested improvements rather than outright opposition to the CPZ changes.
The Eltham CPZ is really two separate plans, which are for Eltham Park and the Tudor Parade/Progress Estate. You can see the proposals here:
The full written answers to Spencer’s question can be found on the Member’s Questions section of the November Council agenda where it is listed as question #12.