Councillors have approved plans for a ‘zone within a zone’ to monitor parking in North Finchley after dropping a controversial ‘experimental’ scheme.

The new plan for a ‘mini-zone’ will be rolled out on three roads that will be most affected by the opening of St Barnabas Church at Solar House – Highwood Avenue, Frederick’s Place and Limes Avenue.

These roads will be subject to the same restrictions that were due to be implemented as in the previous scheme, running from 9am to 9.30pm Monday to Sunday.

The mini-zone was agreed at a meeting of the council’s environment committee last week (Thursday, September 13) following a backlash to a much wider scheme from people living in the area.

The experimental scheme – which did not go out to consultation – covered a much wider area running from Torrington Park to Derwent Crescent.

It led to fears that people would be deterred from visiting those living in the affected streets and local businesses could lose out on customers.

Chair of the environment committee Cllr Dean Cohen admitted that mistakes had been made in the handling of the parking scheme.

He said: “The plan was to do a parking consultation. What transpired was the church opened sooner than anticipated.

“Clearly, an error has occurred in terms of consultation.”

Labour member for Woodhouse Cllr Geof Cooke claimed the planning permission for the church had not been consulted upon widely enough.

He said: “The majority of people were unaware the church would be moving in.”

The ‘mini zone’, which was proposed by Labour member for Woodhouse Alan Schneiderman, will run for a year.

A consultation will then be held with people living in the zone and in the wider area to determine the long-term parking arrangements for North Finchley.

Plans for the mini-zone were agreed by all members of the committee.