Motorcyclists in London face some challenges; staying out of the congestion charge; being allowed to ride in bus lanes, lack of parking space; lack of secure parking. But now Westminster council have added a new one by introducing a trial scheme to charge for M/C parking. The justification is increased parking space and security devices. They have added some spaces but the security devices are only being tested in a couple of residents only bays. The charging scheme involves a broken system of pre-registering, dealing with call centres and mobile phone texting. Make no mistake about it, this is a revenue generation scheme with a stated and planned pay back in under 2 years. And the big part of the revenue is not from the £1.50 per day charge but the £60/120 fines. And you can be sure that if it’s allowed to succeed, the price will go up and it will be adopted by other councils in London.
So please come and support the demo. If nothing else it’s an excuse to stand around talking about bikes! And then go and write to the council and if you can, hand deliver the letter and get a signature for it.
To officially contest the motorcycle parking charges in Westminster, please put down your thoughts in writing to Amanda Jones and Martin Low at West One, 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ, quoting reference 5303-03/AJ. The consultation period still has 4 months to run. However, the sooner objections are received, the sooner we can overturn this decision. For maximum effect, responses should focus on how this will increase hardship and reduce personal safety and how it does not fit into the Government’s aim to “mainstream motorcycling” as well as the Mayor of London’s direction to provide adequate parking for motorcycles. Any negative environmental or small business impacts would also go along way to bolstering our opposition.
