The opposition Greens claim some of the survey questions are written in a way that make it hard to oppose the proposed new policies, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

A council survey on parking in Newham has been accused of bias by using “leading questions”.

Green Party councillors and some residents have said the survey seems weighted in favour of contentious plans for new free parking measures put forward by Newham Council’s Labour administration.

Forest Gate resident James Jones said the survey contained questions that seemed designed to “back-fill public support” for Labour’s plans.

But Susan Masters, a senior Labour councillor in charge of roads at the town hall, said the survey would help residents “feed into a wider debate about the future use of their streets”.

Newham Council launched the survey – which is set to run until 10th December – last month.

It is part of a review of the council’s parking rules and policies, which will include pledges that Labour mayor Forhad Hussain made before his election in May.

These are to give every household one free permit in their own parking zone, and one hour’s free parking a day in any other zone.

But Jones and Green opposition councillors say some of the survey questions are written in a way that encourage support or make it hard to oppose the policies.

One question asks residents to say “how much practical benefit” a free parking permit would give them.

Another asks them how they would spend the money they would save, offering answers such as “reduced pressure on other household expenses”, “I would be able to spend money on other things locally” and “I would be able to use public transport more often”.

Similarly, a question invites residents to answer how they would use their one-hour-a-day free parking, with a choice of five options.

These are: “Visit family and friends; shopping in other areas; caring responsibilities; health appointments; community, voluntary or faith organisation activities.”

Another asks them to say what difference this would make to them, choosing either “reduced parking costs; more flexibility; easier family visits; easier caring responsibilities; [or] better access to services”.

Jones told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he’d heard “frustration around the nature of the questions” from other Forest Gate residents in neighbourhood WhatsApp groups.

He said: “The questions are so leading, a reasonable person trying to answer them honestly would get tied up in knots.”

Jones said there was generally “a lot of support for things like low-traffic neighbourhoods” in Forest Gate groups but that the survey made it difficult to “set out a low-traffic view”.

Green councillor Ren Tilbury said the survey “encourages people to engage in a manner which looks only at the benefits and not at the costs”.

They said it should have included information on how much introducing free permits would cost the council – which the Greens estimate to be between £10million and £20m – and what this would mean for other council services.

Cllr Tilbury said: “If you set up a survey which encourages people to engage in a specific manner, and makes it impossible to engage in another manner, that’s a biased consultation.”

In a statement to the LDRS, Cllr Masters did not answer questions about how the survey was worded, or the potential cost of any of the pledges.

However, she said it was designed to find out how residents travel around Newham and how they want kerbside space to be used.

Cllr Masters said: “The goal of the parking and kerbside review survey is to understand how residents currently move around their borough, the challenges they experience and their wishes in terms of potential division of their finite street space.

“One ambition of the survey is to deliver a parking system that is fair and transparent, however we also hope the survey will be a way for residents to feed into a wider debate about the future uses of their streets.”

She added: “I would urge anyone with a view on these matters to complete the parking and kerbside review survey as the answers will inform our future policy.”

The survey is available online: https://newhamco-create.co.uk/en/projects/parking-and-kerbside-space-review

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