Councillor Phil O’Dell keeps describing Labour’s parking charge increases, including an increase of 20 per cent in Bridge Street, Pinner, as “reasonable”, but it’s very difficult to see how such a word can be applied to his decision.

It is important to remember Cllr O’Dell and his Labour colleagues were elected on a manifesto promising “short-term free or cheap parking or parking holidays”.

So to then whack up parking charges by 20 per cent, 25 per cent and as much as 33 per cent in some parts of the borough seems distinctly unreasonable.

We also suspect that the 2,500 Pinner residents who submitted a petition in November last year asking for 30 minutes free parking will find a further reasonableness void in Cllr O’Dell’s decision to inflict some of the highest increases on Pinner and North Harrow.

Cllr O’Dell says a parking review is currently underway, and expected to report back in the summer. We await the results of the review with interest, as we suspect do many Harrow residents and small business owners.

But, given that Cllr O’Dell has already delivered a slap in the face to 2,500 petitioners, we are concerned that the review will simply reinforce what Cllr O’Dell wants to do — not what he promised, and not what Harrow residents asked for.

Councillor Stepen Wright
Conservative, Pinner Ward
Councillor Susan Hall
Conservative group leader