Cash-strapped Greenwich Council spent £640,000 on its consultation into introducing controlled parking zones across a huge swathe of the borough before scrapping most of the plans last month.
The “sustainable streets” programme had included introducing permit and paid parking spaces across an area stretching from Lee Green in the west to Plumstead and Thamesmead in the east.
More street trees and cycle hangars were also promised as part of the scheme, along with electric vehicle charging point. Greenwich Council had hoped to raise £1 million each year from the scheme, according to the budget passed in February last year, which would go towards transport costs such as paying for the Freedom Pass.
But there was a public outcry when the plans were introduced in July, with the consultation criticised for being confusing and misleading. The scheme was mostly scrapped: firstly in Shooters Hill and Plumstead in August, then in Kidbrooke, Blackheath, Charlton and west Thamesmead just before Christmas.
Plans for Woolwich are still going ahead, with public notices about works appearing this week. The consultation revealed less pronounced opposition there compared with other areas.
Since July, £209,000 had been spent on the informal consultation itself, £264,000 on consultancy support and £167,000 on staffing costs, the cabinet member for transport Calum O’Byrne Mulligan revealed at the council meeting on Wednesday in response to a public question.
Lara Ruffle Coles, a Shooters Hill resident, asked O’Byrne Mulligan if it would not have been better to have introduced a smaller pilot scheme first “so less of our council tax would be wasted”.
“Going forward, I think we maybe wouldn’t look to cover such a wide area with any future proposals,” he said. “But consultation costs money, and it should be done right so that we can hear the views and represent the views of our residents properly.”
He insisted that the consultation had produced valuable insights.
“We went to consult on the full Sustainable Streets proposals, and residents made clear they wanted more time on that, so we extended the process. We put up more events, we wrote to more residents. These things cost money. If we didn’t do that, we would be criticised for trying to not give residents a proper a proper voice, even in the areas where Sustainable Streets proposals are not being taken forward.
“The consultation has provided some really important feedback on things like locations for EV charging, car club bays, bike hangers and a whole range of other things that, as has been stated, we will progress through separate schemes as and when possible.”
O’Byrne Mulligan also said that some residents with Blue Badges had been erroneously given penalty charges while driving through the low-traffic neighbourhood in Blackheath and Greenwich.
Responding to a question from the East Greenwich councillor Maisie Richards Cottell, he said that it was down to a contractor’s mistake and the charges would be cancelled, with letters sent out to those affected over the next two weeks.
O’Byrne Mulligan also told Fiona Moore, a resident, that he would be raising Transport for London’s cuts to the 386 bus service, which runs through the low-traffic neighbourhood, when he meets the deputy mayor for transport, Seb Dance, on Friday.
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