Residents to fight election on CPZ ticket (From Watford Observer)

Residents to fight election on CPZ ticket

2:48pm Thursday 21st July 2005 in

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Hampstead Garden Suburb councillors are baffled by a residents' association's decision to field candidates against them in next May's council elections on an anti-controlled parking zone (CPZ) platform.

At a Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents' Association (HGSRA) meeting two weeks ago, a motion was passed to approve three independent candidates who have not yet been chosen to stand against the current Conservative councillors.

Gary Shaw, chairman of the association's roads and traffic committee, said that while some were in favour of the proposed CPZ for Temple Fortune and parts of Hampstead Garden Suburb, others feared it would give Barnet Council an excuse to impose restrictions across the ward. "The first duty of a local councillor should be to represent the interests of the area and its residents," he said.

"Yet over the past three years, the Suburb's councillors have voted time and again for proposals that are inimical to those interests."

But Tory councillor Andrew Harper cannot understand why the association is opposing the CPZ proposal, which was published on July 14 for consultation. He says it is much reduced' from the original plan.

"This is precisely because the council has listened to residents' views and excluded those roads where the majority of residents were not in favour," he said.

Fellow Suburb councillor Jazmin Naghar added: "We kept the CPZ quite small.

"We have increased pay-and-display parking times by 30 minutes, we have implemented extra bays in Hampstead Way, and we have agreed to review the East Finchley CPZ, all of which Gary Shaw wanted us to do."

Some fear the association's plan to field candidates will result in it compromising its neutrality.

"I think this move is unusual because the residents' association has always been non-political, and even though they are suggesting they will be independent, if you stand for a council, it is political," said Mr Murrell, a former Labour candidate for the ward.