A councillor has called for a ban on dropped kerbs to be overturned as it is causing a “strain” on parking provision.

Cllr Laithe Jajeh criticised a council policy that stops residents from having dropped kerbs – which would allow them to park off road – where there is a grass verge of two metres or more in front of their properties.

Introduced in April last year, the policy was designed to protect grass verges and the overall appearance of roads and footpaths.

But in a member’s item tabled at Wednesday’s environment committee, Cllr Jajeh said the ban was compounding parking problems in areas where new developments are built, meaning residents “are being forced to park a significant distance from their properties, or they are parking on the grass verges themselves”.

Cllr Jajeh (Conservative, Hale) said: “I know of residents in Mill Hill and Hale wards who have an issue with this. It is restricting where they are able to park.

“The one in Mill Hill, where the Ridgeway is, you have got quite a lot of developments going on at the moment. I think it is clear it is going to get busier there.”

Cllr Jajeh suggested developers would be allowed to have dropped kerbs if they applied to the council, yet residents were being prevented from doing so.

Cllr Elliot Simberg (Conservative, Hale) backed the call and asked for a review of a ban on having dropped kerbs less than 1.2m away from trees.

But Cllr Laurie Williams (Labour, East Barnet) said some residents ask for crossovers and then request that shrubs either side of the dropped kerb are removed, which “destroys the whole atmosphere of the roads”.

Committee chairman Cllr Dean Cohen (Conservative, Golders Green) proposed asking officers to look into the policy and determine if it is affecting other parts of the borough. “If there is a recommendation that the policy should be amended, that would need to come back to this committee,” he added.

Cllr Cohen’s suggestion was unanimously backed by members of the committee.