To what extent does the economy depend on car parking?

The Bengal Lancer, a popular Indian restaurant in Barking which closed its doors for the last time on Sunday 17 September 2017 after about 27 years trading, cited (on Facebook) as one of the reasons for its closure 'car parking issues'. The 'issues' euphemistically referred to are not spelled out, but we can take an educated guess that there is deemed to be inadequate car parking for diners. In the comments, the council, generally held responsible for everything that goes wrong, were described as 'useless', though no particulr suggestion was proferred as to how to alleviate the claimed problem.

The restaurant had a vertiginous Public Transport Access Level, being located 4 minutes' walk from Barking Station (Underground, c2c National Rail and (usually) London Overground Barking-Gospel Oak line), according to Google, and it is on a main road well-served by buses: 5, 62, EL1 and EL3 (and N15 at night). It could hardly have been better placed for travellers from outside the area, but even so there is private housing nearby all around it. There's a minicab office a few doors down (one of several) and a taxi rank at the station and I believe there is no shortage of Uber capacity.

So how significant is the shortage of private car parking really? In another area would car parking deficiency on this level be critical, or claimed to be? And how come a relatively poor area like Barking got to be so car-dependent, if indeed it is? And would addressing this deficiency (assuming that to be possible)  really have prevented this closure?

Personally I suspect not, but the council is under constant pressure to provide more, free parking throughout the borough. Ironically, down at Barking Riverside - a new development that will have 10,800 homes in a few years, if all goes to plan, there is land available that could conceivably be used for car parking, though many residents require their car to be visible from where they sit in their house. There is no rail service to the development yet, but the schools are open and filling up. How are the teachers supposed to travel to the school, except by car? The desire to have a healthy town with non-car transport chosen as often as possible is apparently a poor relation to the (perceived) need to accommodate a private car based transport solution.