Primary school teachers are frustrated that their September pay rises have been taken off them by the council introducing new £300 parking permits.

Redbridge Council imposed the enforced parking system outside Aldersbrook Primary School in May after seven years of complaints from residents and teachers.

Now, staff at the school say the council is charging them business rates for the permit and they have to pay £300 just to get to work.

The business permits come in at 15 times the price of a residential parking permit in the area.

Paige Jago, who works at Aldersbrook, said: “It was more of a shock than anything. When the permits were coming in we had no consultation at all, especially for support staff and for teachers as well, we’re not working for the whole of August and yet we’re having to pay for a permit we’re not using.

“It’s sort of wiped out last year’s pay rise. It is very unfair and it’s crazy amounts of money for a business and we’re not a business, we’re a normal state school.

“We literally knew nothing about this, residents are only paying £32 and that’s set to go down and when we applied to the council for the permits we had to prove that the school was even there. It’s their school.

“There’s been a lot of miscommunication, we weren’t getting any responses or just vague replies. It’s very frustrating.”

The new enforced parking system was brought in in May after a string of complaints from residents about reckless driving and parking in the area.

Residents raised the need for parking permits last year with council leader, Jas Athwal, at a Local Voices Matter event.

Back in 2011, a six-year-old ended up in hospital with a broken leg after being hit by a car outside Aldersbrook Primary School. At the time, his mother partially blamed the council’s failure to enforce parking restrictions in the area for the incident.

Similarly, in 2014, Aldersbrook Primary School pupils ran a campaign to try and prevent parents from parking dangerously in the area near their school.

Teachers have talked with their union about the cost of the new parking permits because they feel the council is not listening to them.

On Tuesday July 17, staff invited Redbridge Labour councillors to a meeting at the school to discuss the enforced parking but according to school representatives all councillors declined the invitation.

Abeda Patel, a teacher at Aldersbrook, said: “Unfortunately all councillors declined and refused to have a consultation with the staff at school.

“Staff are being refused an explanation of the charge for business rate even though the school is not a business.

“We kindly request that this matter is reviewed by our council.”

A spokesman for Redbridge Council said: “Parking controls and permits play a huge part in keeping roads safe and clear, as well as prioritising parking for local people.

“The permit charge applies to all those working in organisations and businesses in controlled zones borough wide. Income from parking permits is ringfenced and used for traffic and highways schemes, including subsidising concessionary fares for local residents.”