Redbridge Council has voted to introduce pay and display parking in Wanstead High Street.

The new scheme will start in February 2018, one month later than originally planned, and follows a controversial public consultation.

After local opposition to initial plans, Redbridge Council launched a “full and thorough consultation” on its proposals in March 2017.

The Council claimed consultation packs were delivered to approximately 4,200 properties but this was disputed by campaign group We Want Say and local residents.

A summary of the findings of the consultation stated the average response rate was 20%.  With specific reference to questions about parking on Wanstead High Street, 36% of respondents indicated that pay and display controls would make it easier to park while 31% indicated that it would make it harder.  Twenty-four percent of respondents stated that pay and display would neither make it easier nor harder while 9% didn’t know what effect the measures would have.

Tweeting from the Council meeting at which the proposals were agreed, Wanstead & Leyton Conservatives claimed the introduction of the plans overrode “people’s views”.