I can reassure David Lee (Guardian, January 2) that Liberal Democrats have a long track record of campaigning for low cost residents’ parking.

When Conservatives ran Redbridge, we fought the above-inflation increases that nearly trebled the first car permit fee in just seven years. When they lost control in 2009 we insisted on a freeze, and it has not been increased since.

The Highways portfolio is now led by my group for the first time, and my colleague Cllr Patel is working hard to improve local parking. Unfortunately our proposal to reduce the permit fee was vetoed in November by Tory councillors, leaving us to put it on December’s committee agenda as a purely LibDem initiative.

Mr Lee may speculate about why there was a last minute U-turn. But it is great news that the permit fee will now go down by nearly 20%; the first decrease since permit parking was introduced in 1996. I would like to thank all of the South Woodford residents who backed our eventually successful campaign.

Cllr Ian Bond, LibDem Deputy Leader of the Council, Redbridge Town Hall