£7million in unpaid fines written off as Council plans new parking strategy

Peter Landman reports on the April Council Cabinet meeting

For years car drivers have been dodging parking tickets across the Borough and a whopping £7 million in unpaid fines has built up.

Now the council has decided to write off the debt and at the same time aims to strengthen its work to track down the offending drivers and ensure those who are breaking the parking rules pay up.

The Council Cabinet meeting in April was told that the £7.1 million in uncollected parking fines from bailiff warrants was money that either car owners could not pay or could not be found because the drivers responsible have disappeared.

The Council is now working on a fresh strategy and is considering involvement in the National Persistent Evaders Database set up by the British Parking Association to help deal with the problem in future. This would link the Borough to a national tracing service that could make it easier to track down offenders.

Council backs Populo with £40 million loan.

The Council has provided a £40 million long term loan to Populo Living, its home building partner, as part of its business plan for the coming year. The money will be for start up costs on new buildings.

Some councillors raised concerns about the viability of this loan bearing in mind the financial difficulties encountered by Croydon and Lambeth

Councils in their arrangements with property developers, but Newham Council officers provided reassurance that these problems will not arise as the council has an asset base of properties and are the owner and sole shareholder of Populo Homes.

In addition the Cabinet was told that the Council is conducting an overall review of housing delivery and that there are a number of review processes in place and particular agreement on a new development before Populo Living submits a planning application..

Under the housing business plan there are 300 homes built since 2018, with 475 of them being managed, and 392 now under construction. There is