Royal Borough of K&C have had “Residents Permit” M/c bays for years now.
Carp idea for both residents and visitors in my book but…
Two bays I’ve used recently have no “information” sign (giving the official rules for who can park and when) the pole is there butt the sign has been removed.
As far as I know all parking bays must have a sign (the warden takes a picture of it as well as your vehicle when he hands out a ticket) in order to issue a penalty ( I know this because a residents only sign went “missing” in my street and a lorry parked in the bay on and off for 3 months before it was replaced…wardens could do eff all!
On K&C website they still have residents M/c bays listed so ;
a) Has some bright spark removed the signs or
b) Has K&C themselves given up on them?
For my part Residents M/c bays are a waste of time - Residents don’t seem to use them (a lot are situated at the darker ends of the street by walls and not outside houses - perfect for thieving scrotes and general bays are rammed with scooters…grrr
My understanding is that markings painted on the road are a legally binding and recognised form of signage and can be enforced and earn you a PFN if ignored. Pretty much in the same way zig zag lines fore and aft of zebra crossings can
You’ve just been lucky thus far. Residents M/C Perm Only are only for those that have purchased a permit from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Bays marked Solo M/C only are free bays.
In the old days a Kensington and Chelsea motorcycle permit entitled you to park in any residents bay. There were also free bays which anyone could park a motorcycle in at any time. This was revised around 2010 and they rolled out two different types of permit, motorcycle bays only which was about £32 and combined which cost the same as a car permit (about £120). With a combined permit you could continue to park in any residents bay. At this time they also installed ground anchors in both the residents motorcycle bays and the free motorcycle bays. The ground anchors were also cleaned periodically using a pressure washer so they didn’t get too muddy. At this point in time they also went through the legal process to make the term MC Perm only valid as a piece of signage.
When this scheme was rolled out after about a year the council reduced the number of M/C only bays and converted them to free bays because the uptake of paid bays was very low. Residents had a preference for parking in the free bays (presumably because they are tight arses). At that time I paid for a motorcycle permit as there was a permits only bay at the end of my street and I’m not a tight arse. In addition I only had to pay £16 per year because I’d done a Bikesafe course. The council incentivised riders to carry out extra training in a bid to reduce motorcycle related accidents. If you could prove that you had attended Bikesafe the cost of your permit was halved from £32 to £16.
With regards to continuing to park there, I wouldn’t continue to risk parking in a residents motorcycle permit bay without a permit as the administration are relentless. They will find you and they will fine you.
For information there is a map of all the motorcycle bays here.
Ah right - well that explains it thanks - so the “M/C Permit Only” signs are all they need to issue a ticket…hmm I’ll have to be careful in future - thanks!
I was locking up in one of those bays once - I had assumed M/C Permit meant I needed to download an app or use RingGo or similar to buy a permit - I was trying to figure that out when a friendly parking enforcement officer explained it to me. It is a silly system.
Also just to add I can see it from Joby’s point of view…If i’d paid £££ for a permit for residents bays I’d be hacked off to see blokes like me filling up the space for free.
Reading a Q&A on this I saw K&C answered a query on this since some naughty bunnies had painted over the “Permit Only” bit of the wording on the road in an effort to park for free… K&C said wardens would still issue a ticket and biker would have to appeal with K&C considering the merits of the case…
People are critical of traffic wardens but it’s the only way that the system can function. In Kensington and Chelsea it’s particularly satisfying to see foreign vehicles with wheel clamps or on the back of flat bed trucks due to multiple unpaid parking fines. They don’t care if you are wealthy you will be inconvenienced if you don’t pay your fines.
Mind you as to traffic wardens and parked motorcycles…I remember going into the West End the Saturday after they bought the £1 bike fee in (and me being totally ignorant of it so my fault) …parked in a bay and locked up - saw a Warden looking at me from the other side of road - as I left the bike he crossed over and passed me on the way to the other side without saying a word - in fact I swear he was smiling…grrr - TICKET! …
Then the time my rear wheel was just over the white line border (some bugger had shunted it ) - TICKET!
Ok my fault but those times where a lack of discretion/fairness when a bike is parked and causing no obstruction etc (plus the warden could have said something instead of just seeing me as another easy victim) …make me unsympathetic to them…Ticket the real offenders taking the piss then that’s a different matter
Certainly not in my story above. He explained the Permit scheme and helpfully pointed me to the nearest free M/C bay. The signage was lacking, he could have ticketed me but took it on himself to help.
While it was quite true there was little take up of the £30 parking fee for the resident MC bays the council eventually made them all free. The difference is residents can get a permit and park on MC permit only bays. Which generally are less crowded than the free to all (non residents) bays. You can also pay £80 to have a permit that allows you to park on the resident car parking bays as well.
I used to live in Chelsea at that time. Those ground anchors… nice idea for security but a bugger if you roll over one with your back wheel as you’re parking. Nearly fell off a couple of times.
Once I was going out and found a ticket on my bike saying it was untaxed. I went home to check and found it was ok. Went back to the bike and it had been towed! Turns out the warden had mistyped my reg… They brought it back the next day, no charges of and an apology…
Ha! Great way to increase the respect between fee-paying residents and the council parking enforcers!
You’d think they would double-check the reg (or check that it does belong to a Honda/Harley/Royal Enfield/whatever instead of a Milkfloat/ Reliant Robin or 32 ton Scania Fuel Tanker) since the consequences for an innocent resident would be so dire when their bike is impounded…
Mind you the number of times I wish the warden had mis-spelled my reg when ever I get a ticket so I can tear it up and walk away… Only happened once when I used to have a VW with the reg of M424 DLB …for some reason the human mind reads “DLB” and transfers it in memory to the short form of “Double” ie “DBL” … and once , and only once the warden ticketed me as “M424DBL”… Result!
