Redbridge council applies Thatcherite principles to road space

ANGRY home owners will launch a petition against a council scheme to charge “tens of thousands” of people up to £233 to park their cars outside their own houses.

Redbridge Council will propose introducing annual parking permits throughout Wanstead and Snaresbrook, which would see residents pay £55.75 for one car, £133.75 for two and £233.75 for three vehicles parked on the street.

Residents are launching a petition against the plans, which will go before the area one committee meeting on May 16.

Michael Powis, 70, of Grosvenor Road, said: “It’s totally disingenuous and wrong. It’s just another money raising exercise, a backdoor tax.”

No, it’s not. It’s a laughably cheap charge for obstructive parking, working out at little more than £1 a week for anyone with one car. In return you get reserved parking for residents and regular patrols to punish Essex commuters using residential streets for free parking.

Wanstead and Snaresbrook are very affluent areas where people think nothing of spending twenty grand on a 4X4, so all this whining is just hot air. They can afford it. Redbridge is a deeply car-sick borough.