Labour calls for special council meeting on parking

News from Labour

London Borough of Barnet Labour Group

We’re on your side

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Labour calls for special council meeting on parking

Labour councillors have requested that the Mayor convene an extra-ordinary council meeting urgently to discuss a Christmas and New Year parking amnesty to help residents and struggling local traders in Barnet’s town centres.

Under the council’s constitution five councillors can request the Mayor to call a special meeting of Full Council. The Mayor can accept or refuse the request. The meeting must be called within 7 days of the notice being presented to the Mayor, although there is no time limit by which the meeting must take place. If the Mayor refuses, or does not call the meeting within the 7 days, any five members may themselves call an extra-ordinary meeting.

The Labour motion is:

"Council notes the eye-watering parking charge increases that have been introduced this year, the proposal to increase parking charges by a further 5% next year, and the introduction of cashless parking which has resulted in fewer people shopping in our town centres and more and more local traders and businesses suffering as a consequence.

Council asks Cabinet to urgently introduce a Christmas and New Year parking amnesty in our town centres with immediate effect, to run until the 16^th January 2012 in order to help local traders and businesses in our town centres over the Christmas and New Year sales period.

Council also asks that Cabinet review the introduction of last year’s parking charge increases, and the proposal to increase parking charges in the borough by 5% next year."

Labour councillors have been calling for a Christmas parking amnesty for several weeks including at Business Management Scrutiny on 16 November.

 

Labour’s Environment spokesperson, Cllr Kath McGuirk said:

“The parking charge increases this year and the move to cashless parking has really depressed footfall in our local town centres, and many traders are suffering.

We need to do all we can to try and give local traders and businesses a boost in the final few shopping days until Christmas, and during the New Year sales – this is a real chance for the Tories to listen to what businesses are saying and do something to help them.”

Parking charges go up again, but parking income falls

Subject: News Release: Parking charges to increase by 5%, but parking income falls
Importance: High

News from Labour

London Borough of Barnet Labour Group

We’re on your side

For immediate release

Thursday 8 December 2011

Parking charges go up again, but parking income falls

Parking charges are set to increase again by 5% according to a Cabinet Resources report published this week.

But Labour councillors are questioning the logic of year-on-year parking charge increases after recent figures released by the council show income from parking is lower than expected due to a “challenging environment”, with a loss of £418k to predicted parking income.

A 5% increase in parking charges would mean:

• 1^st parking permit increases to £105 per year
• 2^nd parking permit increases to £131.25 per year
• 3^rd parking permit increases to £157.50 per year
• A book of visitors parking permits increases to £50.40 per 10 vouchers
• One hour parking voucher (card of four) would be £8.40
• Half hour parking voucher (card of four) would be £4.20

The parking permit increases published in the Cabinet Resources fees and charges report only lists the prices for purchasing permits online which have been frozen, but the comments in the schedule reveal that “most permit prices are being increased by 5% to reflect inflation but the price of those purchased online is being held to encourage residents to take up this option”.

Labour’s Environment Spokesperson, Cllr Kath McGuirk, said:

"Parking in Barnet is now so expensive people are boycotting our town centres – this is clear from the fact that income from parking is lower than the council predicted, and shows that the increase in parking charges has resulted in less income not more. The Barnet Tories may well put this down to “a challenging environment”, but what they won’t address is how increasing parking charges is creating “a challenging environment” for our hard-pressed residents and struggling traders - they are just not on the side of ordinary people.

It is also incredible that they are hiking up the town centre parking voucher by 5% already when they were only launched last week – it costs less to park outside Harrods then to park in North Finchley!

And the decision to only publish the freeze in permits purchased online, while the small print shows most permits will increase by 5% is frankly cynical."

Since this press release it appears that the question of parking charge increases is under review.

Yours appaelaingly

Miss Feezance

Vouchers - the facts ( well for now anyway )

Barnet Council have made a right mess of the voucher system. Paypoint was described by one resident as a figleaf, a nonsense, shameful and a disgrace. I am not sure that the voucher system is even that good.

From: McArdle, John
Sent: 08 December 2011
To: E & O - All Staff; Sterry, Heather; Doody, Lauren; Nason, Jody; Cocker, Sue; Langton, Mike; Griffin, Nick; Palmer, Chris; Constantinou, Effy; Adams, Nikki; Benn, Christine
Subject: IMPORTANT AND URGENT INFORMATION ON PARKING VOUCHERS (SCRATCH CARDS)
Importance: High

Dear All

This is important information concerning Parking Vouchers and MUST be passed to anyone who has any prospect of being in contact with Ward Members, residents, or the general public. They should read and understand it, even if they think they already know the answers.

The Facts

Parking Vouchers are now available

They are only available by emailing or calling NLBP

They are NOT available in libraries or any other Council premises

The email address is: parkingvouchers’barnet.gov.uk

The telephone number is: 020 8359 7446

They are valid for One Hour and more than one may be displayed

They cost £2 each, and are sold in sheets of four

Full instructions are printed on each Voucher

They are posted out from NLBP

There is no postage charge

If anyone has a Voucher they are allowed to sell it on

There is no bulk discount ( i.e. for shops, MF )

A Half Hour Voucher is planned but NOT READY YET

It will cost £1 WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE

It is anticipated in mid JANUARY 2012

Some Councillors will be calling staff numbers this afternoon and will be expecting to receive clear and consistent responses.

I apologise for the firm tone of this message but am being pressed to ensure that it is effectively distributed.

I look forward to reading one of Mr McArdle's later less firm, more fluffy emails. Does he sound like a man under pressure to you?

Feel free to give him some more. Write to him at john.mcardle@barnet.gov.uk to tell him why you think that the voucher system is a figleaf.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

A meeting about parking - Wednesday 6pm in Tally Ho - all business people welcome

Meeting on Wednesday 14th December at 6:00pm for business owners

There is a meeting at Cafe Buzz (just North of Tally Ho, on the left) which will probably last until 7:30pm. If you are worried about your business please come along and tell us.

Interim Parking Manager plays hardball

When I was looking for something else on the Internet I came across the following:-

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 - 21:16

Post #1
          
New Member
         
Group: Members
Posts: 7
Joined: 20 Nov 2011
Member No.: 51,244

Dear all, newbie here!

Got a ticket way back in March that I have been fighting. Been a catalogue of errors by Barnet along the way but still they hang on - I think they have the hump about another ticket I successfully appealed.

I replied to their NTO by email (for which I have my own bone fide delivery receipts). Barnet claim not to have received my emails and have issued me with a Charge Cerificate. Although it is not stated on ANY of their correspondence, they insist that because I do not have an email delivery receipt from them that their hands are tied - they will not recognise the email delivery receipt from my PC.

Surely the fact that you have to have a Barnet Council Official email receipt should be on their paperwork. I also think that the should provide instructions as to what to do should you not receive one?

I am corresponding with John McArdle (interim parking manager) who will have none of it it. He will not acknowledge any of my points at all but just keeps bleating on about the fact that I never made representations to the NTO within 28 days - I clearly did! His last email (today) to me read "I am not prepared to engage in debate with you outside the statutory process". The great thing is that there is no receipt produced when emailing Mr McArdle so it's not something you would assume is "normal" or expected when dealing with this Borough.

I have been given until Fri 25th to pay up. Do I let it got to court and appeal?

Any help is much appreciated as this one has been dragging on for almost 8 months!!

Many thanks

BBB

 

You can read the rest of the tale on the following link.

 

It would seem that Barnet Council are desperate for every penny of income.

 

Don't let their attitude put you off. Just keep on marching to the end of the process.

 

Yours appealingly

 

Miss Feezance

Voucher mayhem

Mayhem

The figleaf solution of vouchers is now slowly coming into being after the meters have been turned off and/or removed. Stand in any high street or car park and watch the arm waving and exasperation of motorists who don't have the technical means to pay ( otherwise known as a mobile telephone ). I do not think that many motorists are going to adjust, I think they are going to go elsewhere.

I walked across the Stapylton Road car park on Saturday, just 2 weeks before Christmas, at 3pm. There were 21 empty spaces which is a third of the car park. This pattern is being repeated across the entire borough. Shoppers are voting with their wheels.

Now if vouchers are to be an alternative they need to be easily available and at prices of £1, £2, £3, £5 and £7 which are the possible prices in High Barnet.

Can you buy all of these in a local shop? No, only by email ( the people who don't have a mobile telephone might just be the same people who don't have a computer - aargh ). That seems a bit ridiculous to me. If the council was committed to vouchers it would make them widely available and in all denominations.

I saw the wraparound in the local paper which said vouchers at £1 and £2 were available but when I tried to buy them I couldn't. I was too quick to try it seems.

This is what the Parking Process Team have now written:

Parking vouchers can only be requested via e-mail

We require the your full name, full postal address, the number of vouchers you require and contact telephone number. We will then process your request in the back office and our payment team will contact you ( will it be this year? ) to take payment over the phone via credit/debit card (we will not be able to process cheques and postal orders for orders placed via e-mail.)

Please note that presently the Parking Vouchers are sold as single vouchers, each voucher costs £2.00 and allows motorists to park in a ‘Pay by Phone Bay’ and a ‘Shared Use Bay’ only, for a 1 hour period. They are not valid in Residents’ Bays, Doctors Bays, Disabled Bays or Suspended Bays, or any bay that is reserved for a specific class of vehicle.

Only the 1 hour vouchers at a charge of £2.00 each can be purchased at the moment.

Kindly send your request to parkingvouchers@barnet.gov.uk

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

Cashless & clueless ( Barnet Council are per the Barnet Labour Group )

Here is a press release of today

News from Labour

London Borough of Barnet Labour Group

We’re on your side

For immediate release

Monday 28 November 2011

Parking PayPoints show Barnet is
“cashless and clueless”

Parking PayPoints are too few and far away from parking areas in town centres according to Labour councillors.

The Council allows a 3 minute grace period between parking and displaying a parking voucher, but a recently released list of PayPoint locations across the Borough shows that many PayPoints are too far away for residents and visitors to find parking, pay for parking and display their parking voucher within the 3 minute time allowed.

A small sample of PayPoints shows that:

• In Totteridge, the Whetstone PayPoint is no longer available, and the nearest 3 PayPoints are much further away – North Finchley PayPoints are 0.83 miles away, Mays Lane and Wood Street PayPoints are over a mile away
• In East Finchley, there is only one PayPoint at the Long Lane Supermarket which is ¼ of a mile away from the nearest parking bays on the High Road.
• In Burnt Oak, there is only one PayPoint in Watling Avenue which is towards Burnt Oak Broadway and is at least a five minute walk away from the parking bays near the Library and the car park.
• In West Hendon, the CostCutter PayPoint in West Hendon Broadway is closed, and the nearest 2 PayPoints are at the BP Petrol Station which is 0.14 miles away, and the Metro Local which is 0.61 miles away from Perryfield car park.

Labour councillors also believe that the sign-posting to PayPoints in many cases is poor, and that the cost of the new proposed scratch cards, at £2 each with a minimum purchase of 4, is far too expensive for many local residents who just want to pop to the shops on a short trip. The cost of parking has been the subject of vociferous complaint by local residents and traders alike, who believe that high streets and town centres have already become deserted as a result of cash-less parking.

Labour councillors would like to see a more flexible and cheaper scratch-card system, and they support a two week Christmas amnesty on parking in Barnet’s Town Centres.

Labour’s Environment Spokesperson, Cllr Kath McGuirk, said:

"The PayPoint fiasco shows that under the Tories, parking policy in Barnet is not just cashless, it is completely clueless. In the run-up to Christmas Barnet should be supporting its traders and town centres - what we need is more flexible cash payment options, including cheaper scratch cards, and a two-week parking amnesty."

---

Less a question of PayPoint rather one of NoPoint trying to pay for your parking this way.

As a local resident said at a meeting of the Chipping Barnet Residents Forum last week it is

a FigLeaf, a Nonsense, Shameful and a Disgrace

I agree. Barnet Council have really not thought about the practical issues very well. They need to start again with the needs of, for example, the deaf, technophobes, the old, and the able-bodied all given equal weight and devise a system which brings together a number of different ways of paying which serves all drivers. The council make millions out of parking charges - you would think that the sensible thing to do would be to make paying them painless.

Yours appealingly

Ms Feezance