From the party news release:
Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary Norman Baker said:
“Illegal parking must be tackled in order to ensure safe and clear roads and local authority enforcement is a very important part of this.
“The scale of the increase in parking tickets following decriminalisation is extremely worrying.
“Motorists need to have confidence in the system. The Government needs to introduce an independent parking regulator to ensure that appeals are dealt with fairly and impartially and to ensure that car parking operators, local authorities and private firms are all held to consistent national standards.”
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14 Comments
Whilst Norman Baker is to be commended for the remarkable energy he puts into his duties, does anyone else feel that he has a tendancy to call for national action on everything under the sun all the time?
Whilst parking is an important issue, its an irritant of modern life at worst (and I say that as someone who has picked up two tickets in the last week!!).
Do we need to have a national independent regulator? It reminds me a bit of John Majors cones hotline.
When are we as a party going to stop calling for local solutions and then have our national spokespeople demanding centralised action on everything?
Hard to find any part of this I agree with. Leave it to locals, Norman.
May be not quite an independent regulator. But the system needs to be reviewed. It is arbitrary and inconsistent.
I speak from personal experience.
Entirely agree with Neil Bradbury and Peter.
My slightly less eloquent comment was going to be “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”.
I agree with Peter – this is town council stuff. Remember subsidiarity?
Someone should take Mr Baker aside and quietly explain to him the principles of localism.
“The scale of the increase in parking tickets following decriminalisation is extremely worrying.”
Why? Surely it is incorrectly issued tickets that are a concern not whether councils are cracking down on “illegal” parking
There already is one, its called the Parking Adjudication Service.
Those on the US-worshipping authoritarian right who want to bring “zero tolerance” policing to the UK should appreciate that we already have it in two key areas: parking and speed limit enforcement – and with a third emerging: waste management (how we dispose of our rubbish).
But just a minute… who is it who is protesting so loudly about this heavy-handedness? Surely not the US-worshipping authoritarian right? Well, if my skim-reading of the “Daily Mail” is anything to go by, it certainly seems so.
And I have to admit they have a point. The state simply cannot be bothered to pursue the criminals who persecute ordinary people – burglars, muggers, car thieves, etc. Only those who commit really serious crimes, or commit crimes against rich people and/or Freemasons, have anything to fear. Much better to direct law enforcement energy at fleecing motorists (I think of the number of times I have annoyed fellow road-users by dropping to 30 at speed cameras in 40mph limits).
Norman Baker, as usual, is absolutely right.
Oh yes. Very Liberal. Let’s have a national regulator.
Sensenco – not sure of your point. My point isn’t whether on not we strictly enforce these laws or not, although I think an argument that we should go easy on parking and motoring offences just becasue they annoy law breakers is rubbish, my point is that real Liberals (and that means Liberal Democrats not your usual Daily Mail journalist) should oppose centralised regulators on minor issues like this.
In certain parts of the country, where parking is not a big problem, local councils do not enforce the law as harshly. In my home town of Prudhoe the local traffic warden is understanding and quite reasnoable. In London they enforce much more harshly. Rightly so – illegal parking in London is a real problem.
Leave it to local councils and if their behaviour is annoying run a campaign and boot councillors out at election time. The accountability of a “parking czar” would be a lot less.
It seems that this barmy example of centralisation has made its way into our otherwise pretty reasnoable transport policy, to be debated at conference.
“In Britain today there is often a pervasive notion that the only way to deliver fairness and opportunity for all is to have absolute rigid uniformity…..Real localisation means giving communities autonomy” Nick Clegg speaking the other day.
There are statist, “one size fits all” people in this party too.
Conference process geeks, remind me how I ask for the sentance proposing Bakers parking czar to be taken out of the motion?
You can ask for a seperate vote on particular parts of a motion (I think this is more suitable than an amendment which would essential be a negativing one)
thanks Hywel!