Aidan White on the challenge of implementing a controversial campaign pledge

Newham’s divided Council is facing a major challenge over the introduction of free car parking for
residents.

On 21 July Council leaders announced an inquiry into car parking in the Borough, but it is not clear if this will cover Labour’s controversial election pledge.

But councillors have been told the issue will be discussed in September after a public consultation.

The issue of free parking is a lightening rod for conflict in a borough where the majority of residents are not car owners.

The Council is divided over the policy. Labour is the largest party but relies on opposition parties, the Green Party and Newham Independents, for support.

The Independents, like Labour, campaigned for free parking for the first car in May’s election. But Green Party Mayoral candidate and former Councillor Areeq Chowdhury opposed the policy.

At the 13 July Council meeting there was unanimous support for the London-wide Vision Zero 2041 campaign launched by London Mayor Sadiq Khan which aims to discourage car use and to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from London’s entire transport network.

Some residents fear the promises of free parking will clash with the Vision Zero campaign.

Labour’s Council leaders say the parking promises “remain commitments” but they chose to delay a decision on whether to include them in their parking review.

Officially named the “parking and kerbside space review” it will look at how parking rules and provision currently work in Newham, and what needs to change.

In fact, Newham is facing an old dilemma – how to balance the rights of car drivers and non-car owning residents.

This month, in an exclusive interview with Newham Voices, Councillor John Morris says that on a range of fronts – air quality, climate change, and road safety – there is urgent need for change.

As a Labour backbench and former Deputy Cabinet member for highways and sustainable transport, he spoke out strongly at the 13 July Council meeting with a clear warning – road safety isn’t a niche issue, it’s a public health emergency hiding in plain sight.

Meanwhile, as this issue of Newham Voices highlights, there are growing concerns over road safety and car use across the Borough with hot spots for accidents highlighted in Green Street, Forest Gate and Stratford. (See Pages 10-11).

In his speech, Councillor Morris said there were four deaths a day on UK roads, with someone killed or injured every 18 minutes, and 1,600 lives lost a year.

He said that recently there had been a string of serious incidents, a Green Street crash which seriously injured six people and an eight-year-old was hit by a car during School Street hours.

“We’ve normalised this,” said Morris. “We wouldn’t accept these numbers in any other context, yet we treat road deaths as
an unavoidable cost of getting around.”

He supports the The Safe System approach to traffic management— underpinning both the Government’s new Road Safety Strategy and the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero Action Plan — which calls for designing streets, setting speed limits, and regulating vehicles so human error doesn’t have fatal consequences.

“We are going in a positive direction,” he said. “Vision Zero is ambitious with more crossings, more school streets. We know through research that school streets improve air quality and road safety.”

Morris is calling on Newham Council to adopt its own Vision Zero target, to match the ambition already shown at national and regional level.

But he fears that a new generation of councillors in Newham and across London may not have the political experience or resilience to deliver controversial policies.

“When you experience pushback and people say they don’t want it there is a tendency to accept that, but you are ignoring a silent majority.”

He believes something can look politically polarising when actually it isn’t. For example, arguments that traffic restrictions are bad for business have been challenged.

He says: “You can provide business friendly options – loading bays, short stay bays, and business vehicle exemptions. Often there are a range of options.”

All parties are finding their footing in a council that has no overall majority for the first time.

“I would be surprised if it wasn’t possible to find more common grounds for working together”, he said.

He also stressed the need for a new approach as Newham expands but space remains scarce.

“We have to build higher as more people move to Newham. Sustainable transport is needed with more trains, walking, and cycling. With our restricted space all other forms of transport are more efficient.

“Then there are the climate arguments. Saving energy and rationing energy – walking, cycling and public transport are much more efficient than cars. Even an electric car is not green.”

There is, he says, no time to wait.

“Climate change is accelerating more than we initially thought. Emissions are higher than we thought. The impact of the emissions already being delivered is already greater.”

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