H&F Cabinet to Debate Parking Charges as a Result of Petition
Council says rises justified by need to tackle 'dangerous pollution'
Some residents must now pay significantly more for parking permits
February 18, 2025
A petition calling for ‘fair’ parking permit pricing in Hammersmith and Fulham looks set to be debated by Cabinet after receiving hundreds of signatures.
The petition, which also includes demands regarding consultations on future costs, comes after council-approved increases to parking permits were introduced in February.
The new charges, which were agreed by the council’s Cabinet last October, represent the West London borough’s first hike since 2012.
The Labour-run local authority previously said the increases are designed to encourage people away from driving higher-emitting vehicles.
Cllr Jose Afonso, the Conservative opposition spokesperson, however accused the administration of using residents as a ‘cash cow’.
The proposal agreed by Cabinet members last year shifted resident parking permits to an emissions-based charging model.
A diesel surcharge is also included in the plans plus an additional fee for second vehicles. For the first time there is to be a charge for electric vehicles (EVs).
Under the previous scheme, resident permits were either £119 a year or £60 for vehicles producing 75g/km of CO2 or less.
For second vehicles there was a flat fee of £497, while EVs were free.
Under the new model, annual charges range from £125 to £340 depending on the emissions produced. Diesel and second vehicles cost more.
At the Cabinet meeting in October Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, leader of the opposition, asked, “Where is the research into the economic impact on shops and businesses if everyone has to pay so much more to park and so on and so forth? What revenue are you getting at the moment from having residents’ parking permits at that cost and residents/visitors parking? And how much additional revenue are you expecting?”
Cllr Stephen Cowan, leader of the council, said the proposal was designed to support the borough’s efforts to hit its climate change objectives.
He said to Cllr Brocklebank-Fowler, “You know the law as well as we do. You never alter parking charges for money. You alter them to make changes to other policies; traffic flows, environmental measures, and the such.”
The implementation of the new charges last month has led to a flurry of posts on platforms such as Nextdoor opposing the costs.
A petition, begun by Stefan du Maurier, has received more than 600 signatures on Change.org at the time of writing.
The same petition hosted on the council’s website has received just over half of that number.
This however has taken it past the 250 needed for it to be debated by Cabinet. If it gets to 5,000 or more, it will be debated by Full Council. It is due to run until 10 May.
The petition lists two key demands; that parking permits are reduced to align with inflation, which a Bank of England calculator suggests in December would have been £167.93 based on the £119 figure introduced in 2012, and that certain conditions must be met before any further pricing structures are implemented.
These include that a consultation must receive a minimum of 250 responses and record more than 51 per cent in-favour of any future changes, and that an ‘independent body of residents’ be formed to co-approve any questions in the consultation.
Mr du Maurier told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he began the petition ‘out of frustration’, and that he believes motorists and homeowners are ‘always the easy touch to squeeze money out of’.
Cllr Afonso, who also sits on the local authority’s Climate Change and Ecology Policy and Accountability Committee, said, “We are completely opposed to these rises. Labour should not be using residents as a cash cow, nor should they be penalising those who have opted for greener EVs. This policy will only increase hardship in the area, especially for cash-strapped families who depend on cars.
“We will be attending Cabinet to support residents and hold the administration accountable.”
Cllr Sharon Holder, Cabinet Member for the Public Realm, said, “Resident parking permit charges in Hammersmith and Fulham have been frozen for 13 years, with no increase in line with inflation during that period.
“This first rise in charges in all that time is designed to tackle dangerous levels of air pollution by introducing a new emissions-based banding system, with higher charges for the highest-polluting vehicles.
“Hammersmith and Fulham is the tenth worst area in England for air pollution – with 7.4 per cent of deaths in the borough linked to toxic air. Road pollution is the biggest culprit and doing nothing is not an option.
“These changes will lead to an increase in the use of cleaner and greener vehicles, as well as encourage more people to cycle, walk and use public transport.
“Parking income is ring fenced and legislation dictates that it can only be used on highway, transportation and public realm improvement initiatives. The notion that the changes to the charges are a ‘cash cow’ is plainly false.”
The council also points to a parking census survey it says almost 7,000 residents took part in.
This found that 49.18 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement ‘parking charges should be used to reduce the number of higher polluting vehicles in the borough’, with 35.38 per cent of respondents disagreeing and 15.45 per cent neutral.
Several other London councils have in recent years implemented emissions-based parking schemes including Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.
The City of London Corporation meanwhile agreed similar charges for its owned car parks.
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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