‘Sustainable streets’ CPZ scheme axed in Plumstead and Shooters Hill

Plans to implement controlled parking zones across Shooters Hill and Plumstead have been scrapped by Greenwich Council, only four weeks after they were first announced.

The sudden announcement on Monday evening follows a botched consultation launch. Residents were expected to sift through a series of detailed maps to find their streets, and initially given less than six weeks to respond during the summer holidays.

In the first few days the Labour-run council found itself unable to respond to simple questions about what the plans actually involved, leaving time for opposition Conservative councillors to grab headlines claiming that the decision was a “done deal”, with hundreds of residents signing petitions against the plan in the meantime. 

Then sharp-eyed residents spotted that the maps they were expected to sift through were dated July 2024 – even though the council had claimed the proposals were informed by a survey the following February. Greenwich insisted that the date was an error and that responses to the survey had been taken into account.

Just nine days after the consultation launched, and facing a 100-strong demonstration outside the town hall on the night of a council meeting, Greenwich backtracked and extended it until the end of September, moving a series of public meetings to Woolwich Town Hall. 

The proposals for Plumstead and Shooters Hill were scrapped in an announcement made just after 7pm on Monday, 28 days after the plans were first announced.

Plans for more CPZs – branded “sustainable streets” – continue in other areas where they were planned, starting at the borough boundary at Lee Green and running through Blackheath, Kidbrooke and Charlton to Woolwich. Plans for a CPZ in west Thamesmead also remain. 

The programme includes a mixture of permit parking and pay-by-phone parking along with electric car charging points and long-demanded bays for dockless bike hire schemes such as Lime. There will also be spaces for car club vehicles and more street trees. Areas in CPZs which currently have free parking bays will be switched to paid-for parking.

Extra greenery, such as “rain gardens” to help stop flooding, featured in consultation materials but not on the maps. Plans for those were promised at a later date.

Underlining the chaos surrounding the proposals, the plans to scrap the CPZs in Shooters Hill and Plumstead were announced while residents were attending a feedback event at the town hall about the scheme in Woolwich. Similar meetings for Shooters Hill and Plumstead were due to take place next week.

Greenwich’s deputy leader and cabinet member for transport, Averil Lekau, said in the statement: “We keep our proposals under constant review. Therefore, we have reconsidered our Sustainable Streets proposals and are adjusting our consultation to focus on the four areas we think could benefit most from the Sustainable Streets scheme (Charlton, Kidbrooke and Blackheath, Thamesmead West, and Woolwich) where they are either town centre locations with good transport links, have high levels of new development, or areas that would suffer from parking displacement from other areas. 

“This means we will be withdrawing the proposals in respect of Shooters Hill and Plumstead areas. The consultation in respect of these areas is closed and we will not be bringing forward permit parking proposals in these areas. This will have no bearing on already existing CPZs in those areas.”  

The statement did not quote Anthony Okereke, the council leader, whose responsibilities include “communications and community engagement”. 

In Shooters Hill, the consultation went ahead despite Labour losing a by-election there in June, the biggest upset in the borough’s politics for at least 35 years. Residents’ campaigns to save council assets from being sold were mocked by Labour’s candidate in a letter posted through their doors. 

Greenwich had hoped to raise £1 million each year from the “sustainable streets” programme by 2029, according to the budget passed in February.

Parking permits are now based on emissions. After a price rise at the start of this month, the majority of drivers in existing CPZs pay between £102 and £178.50 for their vehicles, according to figures given out at a council meeting last month. There is a £102 surcharge for each additional vehicle.  The price of a zero-emissions permit has more than trebled from £20 to £61.20 since the consultation began.

The council’s climbdown also leaves a key plank of its transport strategy – to introduce CPZs across the borough – in tatters. Its climate emergency plans, outlined five years ago, had called for a 45 per cent cut in car use by 2030, with reducing parking spaces part of this.

Last year the cash-strapped council passed plans put forward by Okereke to employ political assistants at a cost of £83,000, which he said would make his administration  “sharper and more able to deliver”.

Yet that administration was unable to counter claims that the scheme was a “council cash grab”. One leaflet circulating in Plumstead claimed that residents faced bills of “up to £700 per year” – last year’s charge for households with two of the most polluting cars. There were only 70 of these cars registered out of the 7,300 in existing parking zones.

Matt Hartley, the Conservative opposition leader, said: “Well done to all the residents in Shooters Hill and Plumstead who campaigned so hard against these damaging proposals. This council U-turn is very welcome, and the strength of opposition their plans have faced shows just how ill-thought through the plans were. 

“But people in Charlton, Kidbrooke, Blackheath and the other affected parts of the borough will be wondering why the proposals for their areas are still going ahead.  

“Many residents are still facing vastly reduced parking availability, and the imposition of parking charges in many roads where permits aren’t currently needed.  It’s crucial that everyone takes part in the consultation and gets their views across – and opposition Conservative councillors will continue to support the residents in the other areas affected throughout the process.”

Updated at 10am on Wednesday to include updated permit costs.

The consultation continues at sustainable-streets-rbg.commonplace.is. Further feedback events are taking place at Woolwich Town Hall this week and next week.

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