Tag Archives: parking

Iain Sharpe

Opinion: The myth of the council war on motorists

By Iain Sharpe | Thu 12th March 2015 - 8:58 am

Despite being nominally committed to localism, this government, with Eric Pickles as secretary of state, has been unable to resist trying to micromanage councils’ local policies, whether on bin collections, or imminent legislation on car parking enforcement.

Even leaving aside the argument that such things are better decided locally, is there any truth to Pickles’ belief that councils are ‘waging war on the motorist’? In my experience, no. Councillors of all parties and council officers alike are all too aware of people’s frustration about finding parking spaces or receiving parking tickets.

If there has been any kind of war it has come from central government. From the 1990s, when John Gummer was secretary of state, governments reversed their previous policies that had encouraged out of town shopping, while making it unviable to regenerate town centres. Instead they introduced new planning rules to restrict out-of-town development and enhance town centres.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Parking and poster vans provoke Coalition differences

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 29th July 2013 - 9:24 pm

There are some open differences of opinion going on in the Coalition Government at the moment. Eric Pickles was taken to task by our Norman Baker over his idea to allow people to park on double yellow lines.

The Guardian says:

Asked about the plan, Baker said on Monday that “both sides of the coalition” wanted high streets to prosper and that he agreed that over-zealous action by traffic wardens could be a problem.

But he also expressed reservations about Pickles’s idea. “The idea of actually having cars parked for a very long period of time on a double yellow line

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Mark Pack

Richmond Council pioneers green parking charges

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 3:30 pm

Sky News reports:

A local authority in London has become the first in the world to charge motorists for parking on the basis of how “green” their vehicle is.

Richmond upon Thames is to charge drivers varying prices based on the carbon dioxide emissions of their vehicle of choice.

The system works for drivers who use the RingGo system to pay for their parking.

Motorists register and pay by phone, and RingGo accesses the DVLA database for each customer’s registration to determine emissions data on the car.

Those who drive gas-guzzlers will pay 25% above the standard rate while those who drive eco-friendly cars will

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lamb slaughters Burnham’s “vague unfunded” hospital parking wish

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st October 2009 - 8:35 pm

In a pledge so carefully worded it already anticipates its own failure excuses, Labour’s health secretary Andy Burnham yesterday pledged to abolish hospital parking fees:

It’s not right if some people don’t get visitors every day because families can’t afford the parking fees. … We can’t do it overnight, but over the next three years, as we can afford it, I want to phase out car parking charges for in-patients, giving each a permit for the length of their stay which family and friends can use”

Using the phrases “over the next three years” and “as we can afford it” in …

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