Waltham Forest Conservatives led the campaign to overturn a decision by the Labour-run Waltham Forest Council to scrap the 15 minutes free, on-street parking and replace this with just one hour free between 1 & 2pm.
Many local residents and businesses joined with Conservative Councillors to challenge this decision - which was made without any public consultation - at a special Scrutiny Committee mneeting in January. The result is a partial climbdown, with a reduction from 15 minutes to 5 minutes now proposed. The additional free hour between 1 & 2pm will also go ahead. Taken together with the "grace" period of ten minutes, during which you can't be issued with a parking ticket after your free or paid for time has expired, this will, just, maintain what we have now.
Local Conservatives support the extension of the existing 15 minutes free parking to 30 minutes and when the new regime is consulted on - expected in late-February - we will be recommending an alternative to achieve this.
Right now, we're grateful the Council has rowed back from their original idea. We would still encourage people to respond to the survey and support an extension of 15 minutes free parking to 30 minutes.