It's all about the money. Show me the money

Westminster to ban free parking in the evening
Evening Standard
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter
20.01.10

Free evening parking would be scrapped across much of the West End in plans being considered by a London council.

The move, which has outraged motorist and tourism groups, would extend parking meter charges and single yellow line penalties until midnight from Monday to Saturday in Westminster's central controlled zones. Currently, there is free parking in those spaces from 6.30pm on such days.

Theatres, restaurants and late-opening shops fear they would be hit by the changes as customers would stay away. Motoring groups claim the council has designed the move to raise money they have lost from drivers during the recession.

Westminster council is also considering raising parking charges with a doubling of rates suggested for St John's Wood from £1.10 per hour to £2.20.
Central zones currently charge £4.40 per hour but this could rise to £5. The F zone south of Marylebone Road is marked as a potential target as well as all other zones except B and C, which are north of Marylebone Road.

Residents with parking permits would be exempt from the new enforcement structure, which was discussed at a council Cabinet meeting on Monday.
The option to raise meter charges was said not to go “above inflation”. But although residents would be exempt from the longer charging hours, the price of their permit could still rise above inflation.

A council report last month said that parking charges needed to go up for “harmonisation” purposes so they are on a par with those in neighbouring Camden that charges £4.80 per hour.
It is understood that council chiefs were asked to find “additional income” from parking and noted it was “earmarked to contribute to” £14 million of savings.

Richard Pulford, chairman of the Society of London Theatre, said: “The proposition is ridiculous and would be gravely damaging. We have a lot of people who come into the West End from out of town by car because they often cannot get back on public transport. To add parking to their cost would be extraordinary. It would be a huge blow to the night-time economy.”

Paul Pearson, a campaigner who runs the penaltychargenotice.co.uk website said: “I think it's disgusting, it's just for revenue-raising, pure and simple.”

Cllr Danny Chalkley, Westminster council's cabinet member for city management, said: "As one of the most congested boroughs in the UK there is a huge amount of pressure on Westminster's parking network.
"We have a challenging role in striking a balance between the many competing needs and demands for our kerbside space in order to keep the city moving.
"At the start of the new decade and with the London Olympics just two years away, now is a sensible time to re-examine parking policies in parts of central London.
"It's important to stress though that no decisions have been taken yet as to any potential changes to parking in Westminster."

Invention to reduce parking tickets for the pub trade

Hopefully people can now see that the intention and ultimate aim is to create an intelligent, interactive parking environment based on co-operation and efficient kerbside management rather than draconian enforcement for revenue generation. Hopefully other councils will now start to recognise that commercial vehicles should not be bearing a Penalty Charge Notice cost burden simply for going about their daily business in the most expedient fashion.

The future is to work towards good practice on all sides but to do that there needs to be a massive overhaul of the system. One of the first steps is reported below:

North invention to make life easier for pub trade
Apr 16 2009
by Andrew Mernin,
The Journal
VEHICLE-tracking technology designed by a North East scientist will now be used in London’s pub trade to help stop beer delivery drivers getting parking tickets.
Last year, North East inventor Dr Phillip Tann and Neil Herron – a well-known regional campaigner for motorists hit by parking and speeding fines – launched Fleetm8 on the back of Dr Tann’s groundbreaking vehicle- tracking system.

The technology allows users to track the location of any vehicle and also its historic location, enabling fleet operators to view performance and make decisions in real time.
It has since won a deal to be trialled on buses in India as part of a £17m government transport project and has now been adapted for use in the pub trade and will be trialled in the capital by the City of Westminster Council.

The South Tyneside business came up with the new system after discussions with the Brewery Logistics Group in which they bemoaned the fact that, in central London, there is limited car parking and kerb space to facilitate delivery lorries.

This means that drivers are often forced to park in contravention of a parking or loading restriction, which leads to hefty fines – the annual cost to BLG members is around £3m.
With Fleetm8’s technology, a message will be sent to Westminster Council ahead of a driver’s delivery to a particular pub to request short-term exemption from parking restrictions outside the premises.

This will automatically be granted through a server held at the council, who will create a temporary, ‘virtual’ loading bay outside the pub and will also alert parking attendants in the area, via their handheld computers, not to issue tickets to the delivery vehicle.
To quicken the delivery time, the intelligent system will also send a Bluetooth message to the pub alerting staff to open the cellar doors ahead of the vehicle’s arrival.

Neil Herron, who has become recognised nationally as a campaigner for parking disputes under his organisation Parking Appeals, said the trial in London showed forward-thinking on behalf of council bosses.
“We approached them with the idea of trialling new technology which could assist the brewers making deliveries more efficiently by reducing the kerb time and reduce their administrative burden for dealing with parking tickets by producing an exemption scheme for firms adhering to a set protocol and using the new technology.
“We are working on the project with Tradeteam who are part of DHL and who deliver beer to many of London’s pubs.
“Once we have created the model it can then be expanded to other sectors of the freight transport industry and applied in other local authority areas.”

Dr Tann’s vehicle-tracking technology first gained national recognition in 2007 when he used the device to avoid a speeding ticket.
Northumbria Police claimed he was doing 42mph in a 30mph zone, however, Dr Tann’s vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device which proved otherwise.

The inventor said the deal with Westminster Council could help fuel more far-reaching interest in the system in future.
“This new development will add value especially for those firms operating in the London area. We are really pleased that our North East- based company is being used to solve a London problem and anticipate a great deal of interest.”
The technology has been backed by £60,000 in funding from Newcastle-based North Star Equity Investors (NSEI) which specialises in early stage, high-growth opportunities.
The investment is part of the company’s £12m Proof of Concept fund which targets the pre-seed stage of investment, supporting entrepreneurs with up to £90,000 in investment.