Westminster parking... 4 months on.

Ah, I couldn't see what was on the banners form here, but I thought the beeping was you lot. (I did think it was early for you to be out of bed)

Will hang about after work and tut disapprovingly.

[Spiderman]

i wont be able to make this now, i'll be in town but busy from 6-8pm. if any of you lot are about tho and wanna meet up for a quick coffee and Neros just text me and let me know

[SoulKiss]

I kind of lost interest after the "lets blackmail small retailers" mailshot, and the way they subsequently ignored my email about the issue - for the record every time I contacted them up till then I had a quick response back.

[Spiderman]

yeh its a shame that such a worthy cause they started got ruined by that very lame and badly worded idea they had.

However if they fail then its us who gets to pay for parking our bikes so we really should support them...says the guy who wont be there himself, lol.

[Spiderman]

Just a quick one, got an update on FB from the "No To..." group...

On Monday 7th December 2009, the No To Bike Parking Tax Campaign aims to seize the initiative by taking to the streets twice, firstly by meeting outside Westminster City Hall Victoria Street, SW1 at 8am to attend, as observers, the Westminster City Council-led consortium of local authorities called Partnerships-In-Parking as it holds its quarterly meeting there. It is this consortium that has introduced the socially-exclusive pay-by-phone parking system to the exclusion of all other methods of payment, that has now been extended to motorbikes and scooters.

Secondly, our main evening demo/ride-out meeting Park Lane Underground car park between 6-6:45pm on 7th December 2009.

Enquiries into PIP activities have uncovered a string of violations of EU Law on procurement, with the most salient violation being the encouragement of other local authorities to take advantage of the same pay-by-phone scheme without a tender process by merely joining the PIP consortium. As PIP was originally funded using UK Taxpayer money from the Department of Communities & Local Government (DCLG), the ride-out will terminate at the DCLG offices in Bressenden Place SW1 where an official demand will be deposited.

Whilst all other road-users are reeling from the news of the prospect of being charged by the “mile-travelled”, and with petrol prices poise to rise again, neither of these being challenged by any credible organised group of citizen protest, DON’T MISS OUT ON BEING PRESENT AT THIS MOST POIGNANT DISPLAY OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS BEING EXERCISED BY YOUR FELLOW RIDERS ON BEHALF OF THE WHOLE UK-WIDE MOTORCYCLE & SCOOTER COMMUNITY

TBH i cant see how attempting to hold a bunch of bureaucrats to account for the way the have hoodwinked the public and spent taxpayers money illegaly (as they say) is of any benefit to us to fighting the charge.

FFS we all know the "war" read invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan were illegal but what has that done to the reality of troops ebing there? Nothing!

So if we can prove (and in doing so i assume waste o lot of the money that was raised to fight the parking charge) that the pay by phone system is "wrong" for whatever reasons, they will simply make us by scratch card parking permits instead wont they???

i thought we were fighting the principle of paying to park, not how we paid

i sadly feel the organisers are going in a direction that doesnt benefit the cause they started.

[Stu]

Remember they got Al Capone on tax evasion

[Biker Biggles]

I think attacking them on corruption issues relating to the bike parking thing is fair game and might help to make charging us more trouble than it is worth.If we pi$$ them off enough they might just decide to leave us alone which can only be a good thing.
Thats my philosophy on authority in general and Westminster cant be anything special.

[Spiderman]

But when was the last time the general public wn any type of corruption case against the Govt?

Look at the expenses scandal as a good recent example, all of those who took the pee did so knowingly and twhats come of that? They have to pay it back at worst. FFS if any of us ripped off our employer by "playing" the expenses rules we'd get sacked and have criminal records even if we offered to pay it back, stealing from your employer is frowned upon and they will usually want to make an example of you.
Since its the Govt, its all brushed aside and everyone let off pretty much.
hece i say if we challenge the way we pay, they will bow down and say "OK then, so you agree to pay in that case and you can buy scratch cards (or whatever other system they want to use) to pay" and they got us paying a charge we dont agree with.

[Biker Biggles]

Yeah but I dont think we are agreeing to pay,just causing them embarrassment they can do without.Its about being a constant pain in the assen to them so they go off and harrass someone else.Bullys always pick on those who dont hit back and Westminster cunsel are a good example.

[mr.anderson]

Originally Posted by Spiderman

hoodwinked

Good word.


If they have broken the law in any aspect of the process then surely that would invalidate the entire process forcing them to start again?