Harrow 'most stressful borough to park in'

An artificial intelligence tool examined almost 160,000 tweets related to parking in the UK and calculated how many of them could be considered “stressful”. 

The data, collated by Admiral, showed just over three in 10 (30.5 per cent) of the tweets linked to parking in Harrow were deemed fraught, the highest figure in London. 

It was followed by Waltham Forest (28 per cent) and Westminster (27.7 per cent). 

While Harrow was considered to be the most stressful borough to park in, its neighbour Brent was the lowest ranked of all London boroughs. Just 20.6 per cent of tweets relating to parking were deemed stressful by the AI tool, with Kingston (20.9 per cent) and Ealing (21.2 per cent) the next lowest. 

Parking in Harrow has been a hot topic among councillors, with the borough’s Conservatives regularly calling for more free spaces for shoppers. 

Harrow Conservatives’ leader Cllr Paul Osborn has suggested the council should offer an hour of free parking to residents in all its car parks. 

He said: “Free parking will play an important part in helping our town and district centres recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The council needs to be doing everything it can to encourage residents to use Harrow’s shops and travel safely in their own vehicles.”

Cllr Varsha Parmar, environment lead at Harrow Council, explained this suggestion has been rejected in the past as it was “not considered viable” due to a “loss of income” that would need to be covered elsewhere. 

As part of its fees and charges for 2022/23, the council has proposed increasing parking permit charges in line with inflation. 

The average resident parking permit will be about £71, with varying charges depending on the environmental impact of each vehicle. This is compared with £67 last year. 

The current administration in Harrow has said annual cuts to funding from central government has left it with no choice but to increase the cost of some services.

Harrow Council has been contacted for comment.