Estate vows to fight new rules banning daytime visitors’ parking

Ingestre Road tenants hold letters opposing the new parking restrictions

FURIOUS tenants are accusing the Town Hall of making them prisoners in their own homes after stringent parking regulations banning visitors and disabled drivers come into force next month.
According to Camden Council, the Ingestre Road estate is the last in Kentish Town without parking restrictions, resulting in cars being parked bumper to bumper during the day.
The proposed scheme, due to come into force from April, will allow only residents with permits to park on the estate from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, with a 20-minute drop-off time allowed for deliveries or other business.
Bosses say that tenants’ requests for visitors’ bays could not be met because “from our experience on other estates, this type of bay is open to abuse and has proven to be completely unmanageable”.
Disabled visitors with blue badges are also banned from parking on the estate within the controlled hours, although residents with a blue badge are entitled to apply for a free parking space.
John Loughran, chairman of the estate’s tenants’ association and a tenant for more than 30 years, said the residents would fight the parking scheme all the way.
He said: “Nobody wants it. We needed some controls to stop commuters parking during the day but we didn’t ask for a ban on visitors or disabled drivers.
“We are looking to find out what our legal rights are. We don’t have a lot of money but we will fight it to the end. All we can hope is that other estates back us on this.”
June Richardson, who has lived on the Grangemill part of the estate for nearly 12 years, said: “When I read the letter, I felt like crying. They are turning us into prisoners in our own homes. Because of the restrictions no one will be able to visit us.”
Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras Frank Dobson and Labour councillor Dave Horan have written to bosses demanding an explanation for the new scheme.
A Town Hall press official said that standard hours of enforcement on other estates were 8am-8pm, seven days a week.
She added: “At the request of the tenants’ association we have agreed to reduce the hours of parking restrictions to 8am to 6pm.
“This will allow any number of visitors to the estate to be able to park in the evenings and at weekends.”
She added that the 20-minute drop-off period was “a more relaxed arrangement than those which are currently in place on most other housing estates within Camden”.