All our attempts over the last three years to obtain a written CPZ policy from Ealing Council have failed. We went through what turned out to be a charade for over a year in which the Council said it would publish a 'new' CPZ policy. This has never been forthcoming. Ealing Council's CPZ largely unpublished policies make no provision for empirical research as to why people park where and when; provides no provision for out of area shop/business worker parking; offers no relief in the way of 'buffering' for example in dealing with inevitable CPZ vehicle displacement; offers no community/social engineering impact analysis as a part of CPZ reviews and steadfastly refuses to admit that Council revenue generation plays any part in the CPZ 'imperative'.

CPZs begin to creep east to west across W13 and in June 2008 reached Argyle Road to the north of the Uxbridge Road and in July to the west end of Mattock Lane to the south of Uxbridge Road. Neither of these CPZs were implemented smoothly- with signs being exposed before the schemes came into operation; permits/vouchers with the wrong dates on; and inconsistent road markings for dropped kerb parking restrictions. Some Councillor commitments made about the Ealing Dean CPZ (south of the Uxbridge Road) were still unmet by September 2008. On 29th August 2008, the Council actually came up with a rare policy statement on CPZs, which read: 'Ealing CPZ bays are designed to give local residents the opportunity to park near to their homes, and stop commuters hogging scarce road space'.

A CPZ was proposed for The Draytons but a show of hands at the Cleveland Ward Forum in November 2008 was 20 for and 20 against - so the Council appeared to have backed off the idea - for now. In April 2009 WEN again formally proposed Ealing Council CPZ Policy as a 2009 Scrutiny project. Sadly it was not selected. No doubt the CPZ tsunami will continue to surge west across W13 in 2010. The Council is clearly determined to implement a CPZ in The Draytons and soon no doubt the Boston Manor CPZ will be met by the WI3 CPZs' westward creep. In 2009 residents (and no-one else) were consulted about extending the Ealing Dean CPZ. The Five Roads gated community voted to join the CPZ. Attempts will be made in 2010 to make the Draytons a CPZ area. The documents available below are related to the CPZ debate. .

Last updated 13 January, 2010
Eric Leach