Virginia Ironside, the chairman of the Loftus Road residents association RAPA, has written the following letter to Cllr Wesley Harcourt:
We were horrified to read you are proposing parking changes to Zone J without any proper consultation.
Only two years ago a proper consultation was carried out here in Zone J and the response of the majority was against any extension of controlled hours and in favour of continuing with the status quo. We were later assured there would be no changes or any more parking consultations for a while.
Now, out of the blue, with no consultation with individual residents at all, comes this extraordinary decision.
Our residents group, RAPA was never informed or consulted. Nor was Save Shepherd’s Bush Streets. As far as I know no one north of the Uxbridge Road had a say.
We were not privy to your secret consultations, and feel strongly that you should not be extending controlled hours without another proper consultation such as was carried out last time, so that every single resident can have their say, rather than it all being decided behind closed doors by some select few with, no doubt, their own axes to grind.
This sort of unilateral and overbearing decision is more like something done by the Conservatives, not Labour, and we are really upset to think that all this decision making was going on behind our backs. We voted you in to prevent this kind of stuff happening.
At the last consultation RAPA did not get involved as we felt that there were so many interested small groups that it would be unfair to let them determine matters when there should be a proper democratic consultation in which every resident in Zone J takes part, with lots of choices offered including the possibility of retaining the status quo.
If you cannot reassure us that this plan will be put on hold, I would like to meet you to discover what the background to this extraordinary decision is and how you think you can justify it – one that affects all of us, and to which only a select few have been allowed to contribute.
We also question whether it is legal to impose these extensions of parking controls without proper consultation.
Virginia Ironside
CHAIR RAPA
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
I would suggest that your best approach is for you to get a consensus amongst all those affected and approach the council in a united way. It is counter-productive for you to make politically partisan comments in support of your case eg. “This sort of unilateral and overbearing decision is more like something done by the Conservatives, not Labour,”. Can you provide a single example of the Conservative council imposing parking charges without consultation ? No. Do you expect people affected by this decision who voted Conservative to be impressed by your gratuitous insult ? No again. To be honest it is more likely to induce a feeling of smug schadenfreude amongst Conservative voters and an almost irresistible urge to say “We told you so”.