£1.50/day to park in Westminster

It is as we feared...I know this was mentioned before but it's started to look more official now it's publicised on their website, and will be in place by early 2008

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/transp...ture-plans.cfm

What annoys me is that you just know there still won't be enough spaces and they will only put the security features into a couple of bays, some lots of bikers will have to stump up £1.50/day for the rubbish service they're getting now...


However, on a brigher note, they are invirting suggestions for where to put new bays. Frith St anyone??

[rictus01]

well they had to do something didn't they, must be falling behind on the bike parking fines then

[Stu]

Any idea what the charging hours will be? Even more galling if you have to pay £1.50 if you park up at 6pm etc.

[Spiderman]

Well i can see a lot more bikes parked on a lot more pavements without their numberplates on.

I'd rather risk the unlikely chance of a random cop walking by and giving me a £30 fine than Westminsters vulchers taking £50 of my money!

At least they'll stop cars parking in them after controlled hours.

Here's the link to the full report.

http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/commi...rking_Strategy

Looks like they'll be making about £500k per year on this after 2008.

*cherching*

This is interesting.

1.1A trial of chargeable secure motorcycle parking was carried out in the area surrounding New Scotland Yard in 2001. The pricing was set at 20p per hour and introduced in 6 bays (98 spaces) which had previously been free of charge. The trial at this time was unsuccessful with an effective boycott being carried out by riders. The secure devices have since remained on street, but the charging withdrawn.

1.2Transport for London have recently stated that they have no plans to extend the Congestion Charge to motorcycles. This mode of transport is therefore unlikely to reduce in central areas.

1.3Camden have had a rolling programme in place for 3 years to introduce additional motorcycle parking bays in the south of the borough. As they have installed new bays, they have also introduced security devices. The new bays have been converted from underused Pay & Display bays. The secure facilities are provided free of charge to motorcyclists.

1.4Kensington & Chelsea are planning to increase motorcycle parking facilities from 1600 to 2600 spaces, however two-thirds of these will become resident permit only spaces and will be chargeable by an annual permit. The remainder will stay as free visitors’ spaces. The strategy is that there will be a Motorcycle Resident Bay within 100 metres of every resident’s property. To achieve compliance, they will update the TMO so that motorcycle parking is no longer allowed in car Residents Parking Bays, only in special motorcycle ones. They will use physical paper permits to enforce and will be providing rotating ground anchors for the motorcycle residents’ bays.

If you live in Westminster

Residents with motorcycles can currently purchase “Motorcycle Residents Permits” for £78 annually. This enables the resident to park their vehicle in a residents bay rather than a motorcycle bay. It is not proposed to change this permit policy. Residents will still be able to purchase a “Motorcycle Residents Permit” under the current scheme and policies. If the resident wishes to park their vehicle in a zone other than where they live, they will then additionally have to purchase motorcycle parking either on a daily basis, or an annual permit which will allow them to park in any motorcycle bay across the City. The purchase of an additional ‘standard’ permit will not be discounted for residents.

There does not seem to be any mention of the jamming issue. Ie, spaces won't be marked, and there won't be charges for that ****ty scooter scratching your bike.

Also

1.1There are several high classification risks that should be considered in conjunction with the recommendations:

Risk
Mitigation
Motorcycle riders and action groups boycott the decision to charge for parking.

High publicity and public image risk.
·Reasons for decision to be publicised and explained fully. The charge will pay for the provision of new security devices, additional spaces, and will cover the cost to protect these spaces for sole motorcycle use by converting them to proper “parking places”.
·Commit to staying with the same charging rate for a sustained period.
·Riders will still need to park near to their end destination, so initial boycott measures are not thought to be lasting.
Motorcyclists may try to avoid payment by parking on footways or removing vehicle registration plates.

Vehicles parked on the footway and those removing vehicle registration plates in order to avoid payment for parking will be dealt with by working in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police and the Abandoned Vehicles Team.


1.OUTSTANDING ISSUES

1.1The Pay By Phone service is still being piloted within Westminster and is in it’s eleventh week. All current indications exceed expectation for this method of payment, however the full results from the pilot may impact on the implementation of this proposal should there be any adverse affects prior to the end of the trial period (March 2007).

And

Paying for parking bays
From the Westminster website survey, only 12% of those surveyed said that they would be prepared to pay for individual bays. Of those who were prepared to pay, nine in ten say they would only be willing to pay about £1 per hour. In contrast a third of those surveyed said that they would be prepared to pay extra if security devices were available, such as ground anchors or hitching rails.

*******s.

So I suggest we swamp them with comments heres what I entered...

Interesting idea getting motorcyclist to pay. are you going to start charging cyclists to park their bikes too?

I'm not convinced this isn't just a money making scheme. Can we have more detailed information on where you're expanding bays (20% expansion of a normal bay is about 3 bikes more per bay, not much for £1.5 a day) and which ones you're proposing to add security devices? and what those devices are? Ie ground anchors, security camera etc.

Please provide more information thanks

Interesting...
If you stumped up the 78 squids to get one of those yearly permits on the understanding that your parking would be covered by ground anchors, then on the day that you couldn't find an available ground anchor your bike was nicked - would the council be partly liable under the non-provision of service part of the trades description act?

Originally Posted by Moriarty

Interesting...
If you stumped up the 78 squids to get one of those yearly permits on the understanding that your parking would be covered by ground anchors, then on the day that you couldn't find an available ground anchor your bike was nicked - would the council be partly liable under the non-provision of service part of the trades description act?

The £78 ones are only for residents to park in residents bays.

[Spiderman]

Another way to take our hard earned cash out of our pockets and into theirs as far as i'm concerned.

I was watching a repeat of QI the other night ad did you know that the reason they dont have wheel clamps in France is that the french people decided as one that they would put superglue in the locks of the clamps. Even if they didnt drive a car or it was someone elses car they would still do it.

Cost the clamp companies more to replace locks than they made from clamps so it never took off.

Reason i say all that is that as a community i think all bikers should boycott this nonsense. Maybe we should all get the same number plate made up and place that on our bikes everytime we park.Bring down the whole system that way.

Viva la revolution!!!!