EALING Council has been the unfortunate recipient of two awards at the 2020 Rotten Borough Awards, hosted by Private Eye.

The awards were announced yesterday in the magazine's latest issue, no. 1538.

Ealing Council received the 999 Award as part of the Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) Saga.

The award read: "Ealing Council set up 'low traffic neighbourhood', blocking off many roads with planters and bollards, but neglected to consult the London Ambulance Service, who were very annoyed."

Ealing Council however has previously disputed the claim that emergency services were against the LTNs: "No formal objections have been raised by emergency services to LTNs and we have not been made aware of any response time targets being missed.

"The chief executive of the London Ambulance Service has confirmed publicly, including to the London Assembly, that LTNs are not causing concerns over response times."

Ealing Council also received the Digital Pioneers Award due to its parking permit fiasco.

The award read: "To Ealing Council, which stopped issuing paper parking permits – and also stopped sending reminders when permits were about to expire.

"Result: an explosion in parking tickets for people who had unwittingly not renewed their permits… and the issuing of 3,000 refunds by the shame-faced council."