Community Impact Report

Community Impact of Hammersmith and Fulham Parking Service

The Council’s approach to parking control is set out in the Parking and Enforcement Plan, which forms Chapter 7 of our (Transport) Local Implementation Plan. This was approved by the Mayor of London in March 2006. 

The importance of parking control is threefold: 

1. It is an effective means of sharing out a limited availability of parking space.

2. It is a valuable means of helping to implement an element of traffic restraint policy, since the availability of a parking space at the end of a car journey is an essential requirement. 

3. It acts as a traffic management and road safety mechanism, preventing congestion and vehicular obstruction of highways, footways and cycle routes. 

The primary purpose of the Council’s Highway Network is to facilitate the safe and efficient movement of goods and people. Subject to these considerations, we aim to provide sufficient on-street parking to meet the essential needs of disabled drivers, residents and their visitors within the context of an overall policy of traffic reduction and restraint. In particular we operate a “small zone” policy to discourage short intra-borough journeys which could add to parking stress. We generally operate a “shared bay” policy which pay and display and residents and business permit holders can use. In certain areas, in response to local pressures, we have designated residents’ priority bays and in other areas we have designated one-hour maximum stay bays to help ensure a turnover for business customers. 

4. Our overall hierarchy is as follows: 

i) We do not allow parking where it would be unsafe to do so

ii) We do not allow parking where it would interfere with the flow of traffic, especially buses.

iii) Within these constraints, we aim to maximise the amount of parking through the designation of bays and pricing policies. We aim to benefit all the businesses and residential communities in the borough, particularly those who cannot use alternative means of transport.

iv) All the bays offer free parking for motorcycles

v) Our pricing and zonal structure aims to discourage car commuting and short distance, intra- borough, car journeys. 

Disabled People 

5. The Council considers it very important to reduce the disadvantages suffered by disabled people. There are some 4,500 Blue Badges in operation in Hammersmith & Fulham. On average, a hundred blue badge applications are received a month. The blue badge scheme allows disabled drivers up to three hours free parking where no loading ban exists and free parking in any of the 40,000 plus bays in the borough if the badge is correctly displayed. Of these, 226 are reserved exclusively for blue badge holders. We provide disabled parking on request from individuals, usually outside their homes, if they have difficulties in walking. We regularly review the bays by writing to the individuals who requested them to confirm that they are still needed. This helps us to ensure that we have the right number of bays in the right places. Some of the people who have bays put in at their request have problems with other blue badge holders using these spaces, particularly on match days for those who live near football grounds. They have therefore asked us to reserve those bays exclusively for those individuals. We are considering piloting this in the match day parking scheme around the Fulham football ground which we are currently developing.   We will have to ensure that any changes we make are enforceable and fair to all disabled people.            

6. With the recent extension of the Congestion Charge zone to near the Hammersmith & Fulham boundary, theft and fraudulent use of blue badges has increased. We are now working with the police and have recently been successful tackling the use of stolen blue badges.   We are developing an electronic blue badge which will significantly reduce the opportunities for theft.

7. Our parking enforcement helps to ensure that dropped kerbs and crossings with tactile surfaces are kept clear of parked vehicles. 

8. The surplus from our parking revenue account funds the Freedom Pass, which allows older and disabled people to travel free on public transport in London, taxicard, which subsidises taxi travel for disabled people, school transport for children with special needs, and social services and community transport. It also helps pay for other highway and traffic schemes – such as footway maintenance – which help the community as a whole and disabled people in particular.

9. We have regular meetings on these and other issues with the Transport Sub-Group of the Disability Forum, which has been set up by the Council’s Better Government panel and HAFAD (Hammersmith & Fulham Action on Disability.

Environment

10. The coverage of almost all the borough with Controlled Parking Zones helps to reduce car traffic, particularly commuter cars, and contributes top a reduction in congestion and an improvement in air quality. As noted above, the    “Small Zone” policy helps reduce intra-borough car journeys. The Council has recently agreed to reduce the price of a residents’ parking permit to £50 for electric and other clean-fuelled vehicles. This will come into effect from 1 September 2007.   

Cycling

11. Parking control helps to encourage cycling by ensuring that the parking controls in cycle lanes and on other cycle routes are enforced, and that roads and junctions are not obstructed by illegally parked vehicles. 

Buses

12 Transport for Londonis responsible for the provision of bus services. The Council’s parking service plays a major role in ensuring that the buses operate efficiently and reliably, with the enforcement of bus lanes, using cameras, and yellow line restrictions elsewhere on bus routes.      

Social Inclusion

13. Similarly parking control contributes to a safe and efficient pedestrian environment and helps to combat crime and disorder (see below), which is particularly valuable to older and vulnerable people. As noted above, its revenue surplus pays for the Freedom Passand special needs transport.      

Crime and Disorder 

14.  The very presence of uniformed Parking Attendants on the streets acts as a deterrent to criminal and anti-social acts. Following the London bombings in July 2005 PAs were asked to wear high-visibility jackets to emphasise their presence. Various studies (for example, in Cardiff), have shown a correlation between persistent parking offenders. Since 2006, Parking Services have been supporting Police/Partner Operations and initiatives which are primarily based around dealing with current issues in the Borough such as Motor vehicle crime, Anti Robbery/Mugging/theft initiatives and making the visual uniformed presence felt out on street. Part of this is supporting the Police and other partners on road side Policing stop operations. Basically, the idea is to deny criminals and offenders the Boroughs Transport infrastructure on many levels.   

Street Scene

15. Parking controls and their enforcement contribute to the improvement of the streetscene. An example is the White Cityhousing estate in the north of the borough. Before the introduction of controlled parking in 2004, the estate roads were plagued with badly parked commuter cars from nearby workplaces and abandoned vehicles. Unsightly bollards were used to try to control the situation. With the introduction of the CPZ, bays were re-marked and signed, the abandoned cars taken away, and the commuter are no longer there. We have had many favourable comments from residents about the resulting improvement in the street environment.     

Consultation and Review

16. We regularly review our parking regime to endure that it is still relevant to changing local needs. In the spring and summer of 2007 we are consulting on a scheme in Hammersmith Town Centre that will introduce residents’ visitor vouchers, and would limit the time available for general pay and display, and increase its price, acting as a further deterrent to commuter parking. Residents who live near one of the borough’s three football grounds, (Chelsea, Fulham and Queen’s Park Rangers), experience parking difficulties on match days and we are consulting on a match-day only scheme around the Fulham ground. We are also monitoring the effects of the western extension of the congestion charge on   parking demand in the zones near the boundary, in the east of the borough, and will make changes to protect residents as appropriate. We will also review parking controls around the Westfield(White City) shopping centre, which is due to open in late 2008, to protect residents from shoppers seeking a parking place in local streets. 

Abandoned Vehicles

17. The council provides a free disposal service for unwanted vehicles and removes them for scrapping.    However, there are still a large number of vehicles abandoned on the streets and on private land in the borough each year.    These vehicles are a nuisance and can be hazardous particularly to children who may play in them.    They also take up parking spaces which are a scarce resource in many parts of the borough.

Parking Services investigate reports of abandoned vehicles from members of the public and from council staff.    Where appropriate arrangements are made to remove and destroy vehicles without delay.

Traffic Management Reviews of Zones and Implementation of Specific Schemes

Click here if you would like to go to the Controlled Parking Zones Review Pages