Loughton Broadway Area Parking Review - background

After a long struggle and much pressure from the LRA, the District Council carried out an “informal” public consultation on the parking proposals for the Debden area near to the station.

All the residents in the roads covered received a letter setting out the proposals for comments. LRA also delivered letters to all the residents affected, and to some in nearby roads, encouraging residents to make their views known. In particular, we thought that changes to the scheme were needed in Colson Path, Homecroft Gardens, Bryony Close, Schoolhouse Gardens, Maybury Close and Lucton Mews. We delivered special letters to all the residents in these roads.

We understood that all holders of permits in zones 1, 2 & 3 will be able to park in Residents’ Parking bays anywhere in those zones, and similarly with those in 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. However, this may change.

The Council stressed that this is an area-wide review of parking restrictions. They asked residents to consider the effect on their own circumstances, and how nearby roads may be affected (for example, by any possible displacement of parking).

Obviously, any scheme like this cannot please every-one, and will have to be a compromise between the interests of all those who use the local roads and want to park there. However, many residents have told us that they find the present situation is intolerable. This exercise may be the only chance for a decade to sort out parking in Debden.

We know that there has been some doubt and confusion about how the proposals would actually work, particularly if you buy a resident's permit. The proposal is that there should be sufficient bays for permit holders to use at any time. In the restricted hours (for example, from mid-day to 2pm) only permit-holders may park in the residents' bays.

There are also stretches of single-yellow-line restrictions with 2-hour parking bans (for example, from 10am-mid-day). In the restricted hours nobody (except disabled badge holders) may park on the single yellow lines. So if you have a permit and you put your car in the bay at 12 midnight it can stay there throughout the day. If however you park it on a single yellow line it will be ticketed during the 2-hour window, even if you have a permit. “

The replies from residents were very mixed. There was good support for the proposals in Colson Road (near the Station), Chigwell Lane and the surrounding area, but less support from the upper half of Colson Road. There was strong support in Torrington Drive, but almost outright opposition from Ibbetson Path and the rest of the roads in the area north-east of Rectory Lane and north-west of The Broadway. The plans for this area have been dropped (apart from Ibbetson Path), except for yellow lines where they are needed for safety reasons at some of the junctions and bends.

It is possible that we may be able to get protection for residents' parking for cul-de-sacs under new regulations, by just having signs at the entry point. We are strongly in favour of this approach, which would be very useful on the Debden estate and also elsewhere in Loughton, for example in Meadow Road, The Drive, Staples Rd, Shaftesbury and many others).

In the rest of the area under review, the scheme should have gone ahead as published, but with significantly more resident spaces wherever possible, and other minor changes. We asked that the east side of Oakwood Hill should be made "no waiting 10-12".

Because of the cost of running the scheme, we don't think that the permit for the first car for each household should always be free (the cost would then unfairly fall on residents elsewhere in the District); we would however like to see the scheme start with a free permit for each household for the first 6 months of the scheme.