Tower Hamlets Leaseholder's Association

Controlled parking in Tower Hamlets has become the bane of my life. It's not possible to go anywhere by car these days and have any confidence that you'll;

a) find a parking space, either in your own "home" zone or another mini-zone within the borough (where you can park for up to 3 hours at any one time) or
b) find another parking space if you have to move your car to another zone once your 3 hours is up

without facing the wrath of incompetent and bureaucratic money grabbing traffic wardens hell bent on screwing the ordinary man or woman out of their hard earned cash by way of issuing tickets or clamping them. Tower Hamlets council has buttoned down every single road, public or estate and turned them all into revenue generating assets.

Why? These roads belong to us, the people. The council are only charged with making sure that our taxes, national and local are used to create or repair these assets for our benefit (the people). The council don't own the roads. They are the custodians of the roads, the peoples' custodians.

However the monster that politicians have created in the form of local government council officers, traffic planners and traffic management personnel has gone too far. They don't do anything with the good of the people in mind. They are only concerned with generating the most revenue they can and in trying to recruit more public servants to police and enforce their own stupid parking and traffic rules!

Yes, some places need proper parking restrictions for road safety and the wellbeing of other road users. But 9 times out of 10, there is no real benefit to having parking restrictions at all (apart from the revenue generation to the council of course!). Example, north of Whitechapel Road, opposite Watney Market, are a number of residential roads and back streets. Every single road is marked out as a bay, pay and display or resident and business. Nowhere can people park during the so called "restricted parking hours" without having either a parking permit, scratchcard or pay and display ticket. This means that people are forced to use public transport to carry heavy shopping from Watney Market! Lack of free parking restricts trade and affects local small businesses.

I feel I can't go anywhere without the threat of being clamped or receiving a ticket. In fact the council have achieved their aim because I hardly ever use my car now. I am forced to have my shopping delivered whereas I'd prefer to get it myself and see what I am buying in person. I heard of a story of an elderly man of 90 that was living on his own and his family never came to see him because the parking on his estate was restricted by private contractors for the council. Every time his sons came to visit they ended up getting tickets or clamps! The contractors were actually waiting for unsuspecting victims to come along and park up for 5 minutes, often by which time the victim had been clamped! This sort of behaviour is rife. Hampstead Walk in Bow, E3 is the same. You can't park anywhere for any length of time without getting fined.

This madness has got to stop. We, the people have to reclaim our streets and overturn these ludicrous parking charges. Business will be able to work again. People will be able to freely move around the borough and visit friends and relatives again. Shoppers can visit local markets and small business owners' premises and buy goods, thus injecting money into the economy and getting us out of the economic recession that we are facing presently.

In certain areas why should we be charged to park? Let's stop this now. Lobby your local councillor and get these charges removed.