Well you may have the chance and not for the first time.

The object of this document is to make you aware of what has happened with controlled parking in Northwood Hills and what may soon return in one form or another if  some in the council have their way. After that, it is up to you.

To fully appreciate why you should be wary of any new controlled parking proposal in Northwood Hills it is necessary to go through a little recent history as how it originally started, who instigated it and what effect it had on the residents of this town.
You will see a clear pattern emerging whereby the motives of the instigators are at the very least, self-serving.

How we got to this point.  (A little history of the CPZ in Northwood Hills)
It caused outrage in this town in 2003. For those of you who do not remember (how would you forget) or did not live here at the time, the proposal was for the whole of Northwood Hills to be blanketed by a controlled parking scheme or Zones (CPZ) (Proposal map)
Your road could have been as empty and as unproblematic as Winchester Road, pictured above at 11am on a working weekday but that did not matter. The council wanted paid parking.
The fact that in by far the majority of roads, only the residents themselves, their friends and relatives would be penalised and inconvenienced did not matter to the council. (View roads included in the 2003 proposal)
You could not opt out!

You could not vote that you did not want it!

You would now be monitored by patrolling traffic wardens to ensure you had obtained your ticket, kept it up to date and displayed it correctly.
Your visitors would have had to pay and display a ticket.
Narrower roads would have parking on one side only, causing residents to have to park in neighbouring roads, effectively reducing spaces and displacing parking problems.
Your road would be marked up with painted lines and be appointed a traffic warden who would patrol your street to make sure this is done. If not you and your visitors could be fined, clamped etc..
You would not even have been able to park across your own driveway during the hours of restriction.
After all this, you are still not guaranteed to be able to park outside of your house as anyone with a valid ticket, could park there, including non-residents who have purchased a ticket, your neighbours or their visitors.
The resident would still have no more or less right to park in their own road than the non-resident but all would now be paying. Resident's visitors would also be paying. 

Northwood Hills would have effectively become one huge pay and display car park in place of the actual car park that used to exist in Colchester Road. Closed by the council.

You would think that restricted parking may have been acceptable to the few roads off of the Joel Street shopping parade that actually did suffer some non resident parking problems but it was not. Not in this form.
They joined the petitions and the protests. They refused to accept this imposition which was obvious to most, as a money making scheme for the council.

The 2003 Orchestrators
Originated by the then Residents Association members who declared themselves to be the towns representatives and a couple of local councillors that could see certain benefits, the original call from a the small sector of residents effected by parking issues, was expanded to the whole town without survey.

What could cause the originators that claimed to be your representatives, to initiate the proposal?
At the time this was the situation:

• The Residents Association was headed by a man who lived in a road directly off Joel Street shops (he stood down once the CPZ was cancelled by public demand)
• One of the town's Conservative councillors behind the official proposal lives within approximately 50 yards of the shops. (Since resigned from the Conservatives and now an independent continuing his own CPZ campaign. More about this particular councillor later)
• One of the remaining Conservative councillors was in charge of council finance.

It is quite easy to argue that all orchestrators had an interest in getting controlled parking in place.

How residents stopped the 2003 CPZ.
Through hard work from dedicated campaigners representing residents across the town, the 2003 CPZ proposal was eventually overturned. The full story of the fight can be read here.

David Bishop, at the time one of the key Conservative councillors proposing the blanket CPZ, was not prepared to let the matter lie. He wanted the CPZ and it had been turned down. To this day he is still trying to resurrect it. The fact that he lives approximately 50 yards from the shops may have some bearing on the issue. He decided to try again without the backing of his party but in their name and issued a leaflet to residents with the following transcript:

This is signed by Mr Bishop as a representative of the Conservative council to which he belonged and NOT as a simply local resident. Note how he is focusing this around his own road.

The Conservative council were questioned as to why this was being issued to residents despite only just admitting the CPZ proposal was not wanted and publicly withdrawing it.

The council let us know that they did not back councillor Bishop's continued argument for the CPZ and the matter quietly went away.
It can therefore be assumed by this evidence, that David Bishop may have a personal motive for the scheme and does not mind if it affects others.  Is this not an abuse of public position?

We have even heard reports from one local shop worker that parked on the road outside of David Bishop's residence, that they were told that they should not park in a councillor's parking space and that if they did not move their vehicle, police would be called.
Intimated by this threat the person moved their car.

This is an almost unbelievable abuse of position!  There is no such law or rule.

It is not surprising that David Bishop has since "resigned" as a Conservative councillor and has now become an independent councillor.
His policy? To bring a CPZ to Northwood Hills.

Present Day
Together with the residents association, David Bishop, the original crusader of the CPZ, is again making requests with regard to reinstating a CPZ proposal. As yet the full details of any proposal is unclear but we know that he is knocking on doors, extolling the virtues of a parking scheme, taking signatures, leaving no details of any proposal and scurrying away.
There are general rumours from all involved of parking meters on the parade of shops, parking restrictions in residents roads or perhaps a combination of the two.
You can be sure however, that if councillor Bishop is involved, a restricted parking scheme outside his own home will be the objective and therefore along his entire street, with a knock on effect to all streets adjoining.

This is Litchfield Road where the now independent, councillor David Bishop lives. It is not a secret and as a councillor, his address is public knowledge. He lives at the top left. This picture was taken during business hours on a typical working day . He insists that there is some kind of huge parking problem here that needs control. The fact is that only the very top part the street suffers some non resident parking. Just outside his own residence. This is why we all have to suffer the continual worry of the CPZ returning. This road and probably all adjoining, could be painted up and patrolled if this man gets his way.

Again, surely the question should be asked. Is this not an abuse of public position?

It apparently only takes approximately 25 residents to bring an issue to the attention of the council for it to be seriously investigated. With 8 or more in the residents association, 1 councillor, family and few more, it does not take much to start the whole CPZ issue over again. It is financially beneficial to the council to pass such a scheme. They will listen, as they listened before.

At the public meeting on 5th of February 2003, councillor Mike Heywood, Head of Transportation at the time, stated that if we did not accept the CPZ proposal we would have to wait another 5 years for it to be back on the agenda. He was jeered. We did not care. We did not want it in the first place.
Well our 5 years are up, it's back on the agenda and instigated by the same people. Some of which, as mentioned above, appear to have their own personal motives.

Now independent, councillor David Bishop and the Residents Association are again "acting on your behalf " but you probably are not aware of it.
It is unlikely that you have requested this of them and they certainly have not made it clear to you but behind the scenes those who act like you have given them your blessing, are again instigating proceedings.

The written mouth piece of the Residents Association is "The Echo" You may have read it.
However, it has not mentioned anything about the latest CPZ developments.
The association does not seem to collect or request any communication in but does have a circulated document to communicate out and it has not communicated what they know you will not approve of.

Do you now want a CPZ in your town? Has there been such a massive shift in public opinion?
As mentioned, the object of this document is to make you aware. Now it's up to you.

What can you do?
Remember that this is your town and you have rights. Ordinary Northwood Hills townspeople stopped it before and can stop any future proposals that are not wanted from being imposed. Apathy however, can allow unwanted schemes to be implemented. Once in place, they are then unlikely ever to be overturned and can be continually modified under council control.
Councillors are elected and paid by you to work on your behalf. They should represent you. Make sure they do.

Northwood Hills Residents Associations has not been elected or created by you. It simply exists. The past has shown it to be an unrepresentative voice of the towns people. Let us hope that the new figures now involved will be more so.

Protestors against the original CPZ, whom this website represents, are the only people that went out and asked the people, fed back their opinions,  took photos surveying the roads and generated consultation.  Consultation that made the council listen to overwhelming protest that they could not ignore.

• If you have concerns about any parking scheme in your road let it be known.
• Make sure your councillors know your feelings.
• Your councillors can be contacted by Clicking Here
   

  The original protestors are back in contact and we are ready to fight again if necessary.
  We hope we do not have to but we will and we will not be starting from scratch. We have the people, we have the contacts, we know who to protest to and we are awaiting any new proposals.

This website is part of the Northwood Hills Campaign Against Parking Scheme. A group of over 45 representatives from roads within the proposal and working on behalf of the residents in those roads and other roads that cannot choose their own representative. It does not seek to abolish all control for the few specific roads where it's residents are requesting a scheme by majority but to stop the roads that clearly do not need control from having it imposed or from suffering the affects created by adjoining roads implementing such a scheme.