In October 2021 Brent Council ran a consultation on the parking arrangements on its council estates (off Street Car Parking) and had to extend the consultation because of the poor response rate, On April 5th I requested a copy of the outcome from the council having seen an image of a spreadsheet that was barely readable LINK. Search 'estate parking' on this blog for more background including a 'call in'.
They turned this, without consultation into a Freedom of Information request, which sucecssfully kicked it into the long grass with the answer due the day after the Council Election. This was duly sent to me yesterday:
My Request:
Could you supply a spreadsheet for each Brent estate where parking proposals were made including:
The number of residents affected
The number of returns
The number for the suggested scheme
The number against the suggested scheme
The Council’s decision.
Brent Council response.
I have attached the information you requested, which is on the attached spreadsheet.
It shows a breakdown of the results including the amount of properties affected, number of returns, numbers for people that voted for the scheme, numbers that voted against the scheme, undecided votes, numbers of unconfirmed votes, and the council decision based on a majority of those that voted.
To gather the above information, we proactively reached out to residents to garner their feedback in three main ways:
To gather the above information, we proactively reached out to residents to garner their feedback in three main ways:
- We posted consultation materials to all residents in the proposed areas, with a prepaid envelope to make it as easy as possible to complete the survey and send back their responses.
- A web link was included in the consultation material, so that residents had the option to go to a dedicated web site to complete their survey and respond to the consultation that way.
- Face to face meetings were arranged for residents at locations near their estates to discuss the consultation and respond to the survey.
In addition to the above, we also placed posters of the consultation in communal areas on all estates that were consulted.
In acknowledgement of the fact that the initial response rate was low, we extended the consultation period by one month to allow time for further engagement.
Basing the decision on a simple majority of those who voted made little allowance for the low response rate. I have added a column to the spreadsheet giving the response rate per number of households consulted.
So for example in Chichester Rd, Canterbury Court, Gorefield House, Alpha Hs, Cambridge Ct, out of 373 households consulted only 30 responded with 15 for a scheme, 14 against and 1 described as 'unconfirmed'. The majority of one was enough for the council to go ahead with a scheme. Response rate 8.4%.
In Blake Court, Austin House, Dickens House out of 341 household only 14 responded 5 supported, 7 against and 2 unconfimed ,the Council decided not to have a scheme. Response rate 4.11%.
The largest number of household consulted in one go was Lansbury Cl/Owen Way/Henderson a total of 483. Only 41 responses were returned 8 for, and a more emphatic 33 against. Response rate 8.04%
Most clusters of households were much smaller so in Petherton Court there were only 2 responses out of 9 and both in favour so a scheme goes ahead.
There may be a lot of people out there who do not know the outcome for their estate which may become a headache for the new crop of councillors.
Out of 91 consultations only 13 parking schemes will be implemented, 65 were rejected and 13 will be consulted on further.
Note Pilgrims
Way/Summers Close result was not provided by Brent and my request has
been treated as a further FOI request! Do let me know if your estate is not
included.
Spreadsheet below. Green fill means parking scheme going ahead, yellow it is going for further consulattion, no fill scheme means scheme not going ahead. All spellings are those of Brent Council. Response rate column has been added by me. Click bottom right-hand corner for full page version.
