Mary Macleod MP demands action on local parking

Our MP Mary Macleod has expressed her disappointment over Hounslow Council’s reply to a letter asking them to implement a 30 minute free parking policy by Small Business Saturday. However the Council has said it is perplexed by the MP’s reaction on the matter.

Mary received a response from Councillor Ed Mayne, Cabinet Member for Transport at Hounslow Council, which she says “simply outlined the Borough’s current parking policy – ignoring they key points of Mary’s letter”. The letter stated that the Council was ‘looking at some options’ for extending 30 minutes free parking elsewhere in the Borough, but did not confirm what they were going to do or when it might happen.

Mary said: “Councillor Mayne’s reply is simply not good enough. It says nothing about where or when the Council is planning to extend 30 minutes free parking nor does it address my point about the benefits such a scheme would offer on Small Business Saturday.

“On a day when we will be celebrating the character, value and importance of our small businesses, we should be making it as easy as possible for people to drop in and shop. I want to have a fair parking system that benefits local residents and helps support our local high streets. This is something that people have wanted for a very long time and there is no excuse for delaying it. I would like to see Hounslow Council get behind this campaign and state clearly when and where they are planning to extend 30 minutes free parking in the borough ’.

However Councillor Ed Mayne has said he is “perplexed” by Mary Macleod’s statement.

“Earlier this year she wrote me a letter congratulating me for introducing 30 minutes free parking across the borough. Furthermore I said in my most recent letter to her that the council would investigate whether more Stop & Shop schemes could be approved.”

In recent months, Mary has been leading a campaign on free parking. Her campaign asks Hounslow Council to introduce a Borough-wide, 30 minute free parking scheme which would allow people to be able to stop for a short amount of time to use local shops.

She also advocates the ‘HounslowCard’, which could have many additional uses and benefits such as:

• Providing a ‘top-up’ function, so that residents could pay for parking via the card.
• Discounted parking for elderly residents and students.
• A discount when buying from local independent shops signed up to the scheme.

Small Business Saturday is a national event celebrating small business that will take place on 7 th December. It started off in the United States and has been a huge success, leading to over 100 million Americans spending $5.5 billion.