This morning, during rush hour, about 25 bikers gathered at Millbank in Central London with one simple objective: legally cause gridlock on the roads of Westminster to protest at parking charges imposed on them by Westminster City Council with no valid reason, other than that of filling up the council’s coffers. This was the first in a series of weekly gatherings until Tory Councillor Danny Chalkley scraps his controversal motorcycle parking tax.

At 7.15am, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign committee sent a short text message to advise where the meeting point was going to be: “Wed Morn B’fast Club – MEET COBBLED CRES COURTYARD OUTSIDE MILLBANK TOWER, MILLBANK, 7.50am Wed 10 March. Depart 8am 2 flashpoint venue, location TBA”. 30 minutes later, some 25 bikers gathered at Millbank, ready to cause mayhem on the roads. Within minutes, the roads in the Millbank area were completely blocked, with hundreds of cars, buses, taxis stuck in an enormous traffic jam.

There is no need for hundreds of bikers to block the roads, 25 of them is more than enough to bring traffic to a standstill. What made us laugh is how quickly the Police turned up and were unable to make the bikers move away. They just looked like headless chickens running around. The bikers were doing nothing wrong at all, they were just riding their motorcycles on the road, at a very low speed, which is perfectly legal, thus causing gridlock behind them. We wonder how many circles those bikers made on the roundabout, thus stopping all four wheeled vehicles from entering it.

Any car, bus or taxi driver approaching a biker to tell them off was given a leaflet to explain what this was all about. They were also urged to express their anger at Westminster City Council, the source of all this mess. If Councillor Danny Chalkley had not introduced a motorcycle parking tax in Westminster, all these people wouldn’t have been stuck in traffic and would have managed to get to work on time this morning.

This is now on the agenda every Wednesday morning during rush hour, but in a different location each time. Don’t try to predict what the location will be, only the No To Bike Parking Tax committee knows it, no one else, even not us! Register here to receive the SMS and join the fun!

Remember, there is only one way to stop this: ask Councillor Danny Chalkley to scrap the bike parking tax. If you’re not happy with being stuck in traffic for hours every Wednesday morning, then speak to Danny Chalkley at Westminster City Council. Bikers’ day is only on Wednesdays at the moment, but we wonder how long it will take before mayhem is caused on other weekdays if the bike parking tax is not scrapped soon…

They treat motorcycles like cars so they will congest like cars!

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Traffic Jam in Parliament Square caused by just a few angry bikers in advance to the big demonstration

At precisely 5pm, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign sent a text message to all bikers who previously registered on its website to alert them of the meeting point for this demonstration. At 5.30pm, bikers gathered in Parliament Square for a slow ride around causing traffic gridlock within minutes. “NTBPT PRE-DEMO MEET – 5.30pm Tues 9 March, slow-ride around Parliament Sq – if gridlock ensues, so be it. Depart 5.55pm. Procession to Northumberland Ave for 6pm”, was the message sent by SMS to all registered protestors.

Bye bye Boss, see you tomorrow! At 5pm, we rushed out of our office, took our bike in direction to Parliament Square. We just didn’t want to miss any second of a protest that was going to be so embarrassing for Westminster City Council. When we arrived at Parliament Square, there were already about 50 bikers riding around very slowly and causing a nice traffic jam, in which buses, cars and taxis were going to be stuck for a few hours by the time it would all clear.

Hundreds of bikers en route to the Northumberland Hotel

Came 5.55pm and we all followed Warren Djanogly, Chairman of the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, to join him outside the Northumberland Hotel, where the Westminster Conservative fat cats and their guests (lords, dukes, ambassadors and mayors) were going to have their annual civic dinner at a total cost to the taxpayer of £23,000. Let’s not forget that Westminster Council has recently made 300 people redundant, has a £22 million budget overspend, has lost £17 million of taxpayers’ money in now failed Icelandic banks and has still gone ahead with a dinner party in one of the most prestigious venues in London for a total cost to the taxpayer of £23,000. Is this not disgusting? We are confident that Westminster residents will remember this on their way to the polling station this coming May. As Conservative Councillor Angela Hooper said “I think when it comes to guidance on policy, residents have that opportunity every four years”, they’ll no doubt take the opportunity to express their disgust at the conduct of some Westminster Conservative Councillors very soon indeed.

Shame on you!

As Westminster Tory Councillors and their guests were entering the prestigious 5 stars Northumberland Hotel, they were greeted by hundreds of bikers and other protestors who shouted “shame on you!” at them. After all, we thought this was more than fair enough considering that it was OUR hard earned money these fat cats were spending this evening. Some guests were clearly unaware that they were going to be welcome by hundreds of bikers, as they looked so surprised when they saw us all shouting at them. Could it be that they had not been informed by their hosts that they were going to meet quite a few bikers on their way into the Northumberland Hotel? Maybe the hosts, who don’t have an issue with stealing thousands of pounds from bikers through a parking tax that may well turn out to be illegal, didn’t have the courage and courtesy to inform their guests beforehand of how the evening was scheduled to start?

We were very pleased to see our most respected Westminster Councillor, Paul Dimoldenberg, protesting with us. It’s always nice to see that at least one person in that broken and corrupted Conservative lead council is honest and supportive to the public, so thank you so much, Paul! We were also very grateful to our well respected Catwoman for her delicious home-made cookies! Demonstrations without our Catwoman wouldn’t be so enjoyable.

The fight against the Conservative motorcycle parking tax continues. As Warren Djanogly has now said many times, there is no more time for talking, it’s now radical action that is being taken against these Tory tax-makers. If you want to find out more, click here and here.

Scrap the tax or scrap the tax makers! It’s as simple as that.

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

While we all very well know that the bike parking tax is about revenue raising in order to rescue a broken council that currently has a £22 million budget overspend, we thought that the fake excuse of kerb space management was an interesting one. Motorbikes and scooters don’t take any space at all compared with cars, coaches and lorries, but still they seemed to cause Councillor Chalkley some concern, despite seven bikes being able to fit in the space occupied by one single car. What made us laugh was when the same Councillor Chalkley introduced 400 car club parking spaces in a Borough that he claimed to be so congested and in which kerb space was a serious issue. Well, kerb space cannot be such a serious problem if there is enough space for an additional 400 parking spots for these car clubs! But still, it is such an issue for Chalkley that motorbikes and scooters have to be charged for parking. And for Councillor Susie Burbridge, who accused the French Government to have stated that a motorcycle, even a small one, pollutes more than a hummer, the motorcycle parking charge is less than a cup of Starbucks coffee, so after all, motorcyclists can sacrify their daily cup of coffee for the sake of the Tory thieves in Westminster and their so well valued Verrus colleagues.

But now, Chalkley says that kerb space is no longer an issue in Westminster, congestion is the problem. The Mayor of London introduced a congestion charge in Central London a few years ago, but nevertheless, Councillor Chalkley believes that more still needs to be done. Motorcycles are exempt from the congestion charge precisely because they don’t cause congestion, but Chalkley, as you would expect, doesn’t agree with what is called common sense. In his latest comments to the West End Extra, Chalkley said “the introduction of motorcycle parking charges (…) is about dealing with the increasing pressures on our roads and ensuring the city does not grind to a standstill”.

So, according to Chalkley, motorcycles do congest and cause standstill. Well, he’s not entirely wrong for once because motorcycles, when treated like cars, can indeed congest and cause standstill. If you don’t believe us, come and have a look every Wednesday morning between 7.45am and 8.45am when a few motorcycles will cause chaos on the roads of Westminster until Chalkley scraps his bike parking tax. Or perhaps, you will realise this while you get stuck on a bus or in your car and get to your office so late that you’ve missed your first meeting. If you still don’t believe us, then watch this:-

Source:-

On bikes, for the record

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

We wonder which body has not yet started an investigation into Westminster City Council’s parking department. The European Commission, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the Metropolitan Police, the Department of Communities & Local Government (DCLG), the High Court of Justice, the Information Commission and the Local Government Ombudsman are all investigating Westminster City Council in one way or another.

It should be noted that almost every investigation has been launched as a result of Councillor Danny Chalkley pushing through a highly unpopular and controversal motorcycle parking tax, despite the thousands of written and official objections that he received during the experimental phase of the scheme. Also, because Westminster’s parking officers have published a series of reports full of inconsistencies, errors and incorrect assumptions in a view to misleading the public and pushing through Chalkley’s bike parking tax without appropriate justification, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign lodged last week an official complaint against Westminster City Council with the High Court of Justice. The complaint is about a motorcycle parking scheme for which the prime objective is to raise revenue and make a profit. It is illegal in the United Kingdom to implement parking schemes in order to make profits, and this is exactly what the No To Bike Parking Tax campaigners believe the Conservatives in Westminster have done. You can download a copy of the case presented by Warren Djanogly, Chairman of the campaign, against Westminster City Council by clicking here.

What UK France Bikers find most exciting is the on-going Police investigation against two senior officers employed by Westminster City Council. Although we know who they are, we cannot publish their names yet, as much as we would love to. But one thing for sure is that one of these guys is highly qualified, and someone equiped with such a high profile and professional background is not expected to carry out activities that are suspected to have been pure fraud. You can click here for more information about what this is all about.

We have learned today from the BBC that the European Commission is definitely investigating the Westminster lead Partnerships in Parking (PiP) scheme, which consists of encouraging other councils throughout the United Kingdom to adopt the Verrus cashless parking system, in exchange for a nice and comfortable fee payable to Westminster City Council. Although this all sounds like a good idea in principle, as it would harmonise all the parking regulations and systems across the country, PiP encourages councils to adopt the Verrus pay-by-phone parking system without giving an opportunity to other organisations to present their products and services, thus allowing fair competition between companies across the European Union. All contracts costing more than £156,442 must be opened to tender to enable fair competition between businesses, and it is alleged that the PiP scheme is precisely failing to do this.

We wonder why the PiP architect, Alastair Gilchrist, cancelled the presentation he was scheduled to give this week at the ParkEx exhibition in London and for which the purpose was to show everyone how fantastic his PiP scheme was. Could it be that Alastair realised that PiP was not that good after all or is he so scared of the EU Commissioners that he lost his bottle? Oh, poor Alastair, we are so sorry for him (we are not…), he might have wasted more than £600,000 of taxpayers’ money in setting up his PiP scheme that could well have to be scrapped sooner rather than later! Will this ruin his relationship with the Verrus shareholders who he has been so keen to keep wealthy? Well maybe, but after all, do we care? No we don’t, as other councils will not be given an easy method to stealth tax motorcycles for parking.

So with Conservative lead Westminster City Council being the biggest, wealthiest and supposingly most prestigious local authority in the UK, how does David Cameron feel with all these allegations and investigations against senior members of his own political party? He has so far said that the motorcycle parking tax is a local issue and has got nothing to do with him. But how local is it really, since the national and international press is floaded with negative articles about the activities that his local boys have been carrying out in Westminster. It is time for David Cameron to come out of Millbank and have a word with his Westminster colleagues, if he doesn’t want to see a potential disaster for his party at the local and general elections later this year.

If only Councillor Chalkley had listened to the thousands of bikers who objected to his motorcycle parking tax… it’s too late now, the damage is done and the consequences will follow!

Further reading:-

Westminster Council’s parking department faces EU probe

Was WCC Officer Gilchrist too busy to deliver conference talk on PIP or is he loosing his bottle due to EU investigation?

Westminster’s Mike More gets slap in the face from EU Commission

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

We very well remember the days when Westminster Councillor Danny Chalkley called motorcyclists rogues, as if they were a dirty, unpleasant and dishonest group of people. They’re not at all, they just occasionally get together to defend their rights and protect the freedom that they’ve always enjoyed, especially when a politician tries to use them as cash cows and unfairly stealth tax them for parking. After all, when one exercises their democratic right to protest, it doesn’t make them rogue, does it?

If you don’t believe us, then watch this video.

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

We remember, back on 1st July 2009, when the Chairman of the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, Warren Djanogly, during his briefing to protestors at Golden Square, advised that the only way to get this ridiculous tax scrapped was to go legal, since Chalkley had ignored all campaigners’ attempts to peacefully object to the scheme. This was after Chalkley and his Conservative colleagues in Westminster (including Councillors Harvey, Hooper and Burbridge) had already ignored the first round of objections submitted by 18th February 2009 by thousands of motorcyclists. Although the purpose of the 1st July 2009 demonstration was to lodge another 3,000+ objections, we very well knew that whatever the number of objections to the scheme, Chalkley would go ahead with it, as he had a lot more interest in keeping the shareholders of Verrus (the pay-by-phone system provider) and NSL Services (parking enforcers in Westminster) happy and wealthy, as opposed to the residents who elected him in the first place to serve their own interest.

Alastair Gilchrist (former Director of Parking at Westminster Council) and Chalkley both thought that the protest group would go away after a few months, as a result of their objections and demonstrations being continually ignored. The truth is that the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign currently has more than 7,500 people registered on its mailing list and website, and the number is still growing daily, some 19 months after the group was first set up. So are the protestors going away? Not really, to the contrary, their anger at the Westminster Conservatives is growing every day, which is obviously not a good thing in the run-up to the elections, is it? Such a large protest group, the largest ever that Westminster Council has had to deal with, can indeed make a lot of damage to the reputation, credibility and career of the targeted Conservative politicians. But for Chalkley and his Conservative colleagues in Westminster, the public is there to accept whichever piece of legislation is thrown at their face, whether they like it or not. We can only hope that Chalkley will be proved wrong and that he and his colleagues will learn the lessons from this bike parking tax episode to not only realise that Power Two Wheeler (PTW) users represent one of the strongest motorist community and also that it’s never a good idea to mess up with the public.

Chalkley even insulted the people he imposed a parking tax on by calling them ROGUES, simply because they were exercising their legal right to protest at an unwanted piece of legislation of his. He and his parking officers also manipulated figures and facts to show and prove the revenue neutrality of the motorcycle charging scheme to then issue a statement last week, on request from the campaign’s lawyers, that shows a loss-making scheme of almost half a million pounds per annum.

It turns out to be a very expensive and painful tax for the Conservatives. Not only does it seem to generate a massive annual loss, that Westminster residents will have to pay for, but also the process in which it was set up is currently under scrutiny by a number of major UK and European organisations, which could well conclude that this tax is illegal.

* An Investigation into Westminster’s parking affairs is currently being carried out by the European Commission for suspected breach of EU law with regards to the lack of tendering process in the setting up of the Verrus pay-by-phone parking system, leading to the running of the Partnerships in Parking (PiP) scheme, which is entirely driven by Westminster City Council (official case number: SG-CDC-2008A-7695).

* Investigations into Westminster’s parking affairs currently carried out by the Office of Fair Trading, again for suspected breach of the law with regards to the Verrus pay-by-phone parking system (official case number: EPIC/ENQ/E/75795).

* Public inquiry demanded by hundreds of bikers on 7th December 2009 to the Department of Communities & Local Government (DCLG) into the way more than £600,000 of taxpayers’ money granted to Westminster City Council was used to set up the Partnerships in Parking (PiP) scheme, suspected to be illegal.

* Two Westminster Council senior officers under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for alleged offences under the Fraud Act and Gross Misconduct in Public Office regarding the authority by which NSL Services came to perform the circa £13 million annual parking enforcement contract in March 2007. Under EU law, all contracts worth more than £156,442 must be opened to tender to enable fair competition between businesses and must also be advertised in the EU’s official journal. Because Westminster Council’s parking enforcement contract was worth around £13 million, i.e. a lot more than the minimum threshold of £156,442, it had to be opened to tender, as a result of the United Kingdom being a full member state of the European Union. The crime number for this investigation is 6507270/10.

* And the lawyers of the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign have just lodged papers at the High Court against Westminster’s Conservative motorcycle parking tax, suspected to have been set up illegally.

* There are also more complaints lodged with the District Auditor, the Local Government Ombudsman and the Information Commission.

In short, bikers are not cash cows and will never accept to be called as such. Rule number one – never piss off a motorcyclist or you will be hit back where it really hurts!

Further reading:-

Parking tax campaigners reach high court

Calls to end motorbike parking fee scheme in Westminster

Legal case lodged in UK Court seeks ruling against Westminster’s Motorbike & Scooter parking tax

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

We have spoken to a large number of motorists over the past 18 months, who have no choice but pay for their parking everywhere they go, and a fair proportion of them have asked us why we believe motorcyclists should be exempt from parking charges while car drivers are indeed being charged to park their vehicles.

When answering the question, a Powered Two Wheeler (PTW) user naturally comes up with arguments such as motorcycles (whether motorbikes or scooters) reduce air pollution, don’t cause congestion at all and take much less kerb space than cars. All this is absolutely true, but are these arguments convincing enough? While some motorists are prepared to accept these arguments as good enough reasons for not charging PTWs for parking, others would still argue that it is unfair that cars have to pay and not bikes.

But when you ask these motorists the question “why should cars pay for parking”, they all go blank! They just can’t come up with a reasonable and meaningful answer, other than something like “well, they’ve always paid, so why not”, but that doesn’t explain why cars should pay for parking. So if no one can tell us why cars should pay for parking, then why should motorbikes and scooters also do?

If we take the example of the London Borough of Wandsworth and particularly the Southfields area, which we have recently visited, cars are required to pay for parking only between 1.30pm and 2.30pm Monday to Friday. The rest of the time, i.e. 23 hours a day, is entirely free of charge. The reason for this, as we are told, is to stop visitors from parking their car all day long while they continue their journey on the public transport and occupy parking bays that are primarily reserved for residents use. But then why does the council need to charge for one hour a day and can’t raise signs to say that those bays are for residents use only 24 hours a day, thus allowing residents to park free of charge at any time? If you visit the London Borough of Westminster, it can cost up to £4 per hour to park your four wheels, Monday to Saturday, 8.30am to 6.30pm. So why should cars pay up to £4 per hour in Westminster Monday to Saturday and something like £1.50 for only one hour a day Monday to Friday in Southfields? The question is not why cars DO pay for parking in between these hours, but why they SHOULD do so.

All motorised vehicles pay road tax, all residents of a borough pay council tax and other charges, so why in addition to all this should they pay for on-street parking? What is the raod tax for if not used to maintain the roads? Why can’t councils use some of the council tax to maintain the kerb space? Why do they need parking revenue in addition to the money they already collect from taxpayers every month?

No one has ever managed to give us a proper, meaningful and reasonable answer to the basic question of why cars should pay for parking. As we understand it, parking charges for cars were initially introduced to finance the cost of building car parks, and such charges were only a temporary measure until the funds required to build those car parks were fully collected. And some fifty years later, car parking charges are still in place, but obviously not as a temporary measure. If there is no valid and fundamental reason why cars should pay for on-street parking these days, then why should motorcycles?

One thing for sure is that cars pay for on-street parking because no one, at the time the charges were introduced and made permanent, had the courage and drive to challenge the authorities, unlike motorcyclists who will continue to inconvenience the working life of the Conservative Councillors in Westminster until they drop their unjustified and loss-making bike parking tax. Motorcyclists are being inconvenienced with a stupid and non-sense parking tax on a daily basis, therefore they will inconvenience its architects until it is scrapped. Fair deal.

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

We are not surprised at all to read Councillor Dimoldenberg’s revelations today, despite the on-going and ludicrous efforts of the Westminster Conservatives to hide the truth by manipulating facts and figures. Philippe Lerouge, Chief Executive of PayByPhone in France (the new name for Verrus) advised, during a recent interview with Moto Mag, that it was not financially viable to charge Powered Two Wheelers (PTWs) for parking with PayByPhone: “I don’t think that charging PTWs to park is a viable option from a financial perspective. We have never thought about it and no council has ever asked us to design the system for this purpose” (click here for further details) . But we very well know that the Conservatives in Westminster feel like they’re above everyone else, they know and do everything better than others, especially when it comes to stealth taxing members of the public, who are keen to do their bit to benefit the environment, by reducing air pollution and road congestion in Central London. This behaviour of the Conservatives reminds us of the famous little song “Everything YOU can do, I can do better, I can do everything better than YOU!”. Well, obviously not, the Conservatives got it all wrong!

Here is Labour Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg’s press release on the revelations:-

PRESS NOTICE

24th February 2010

WESTMINSTER CONSERVATIVES SET TO LOSE £430,000 ON MOTORBIKE PARKING CHARGES

Westminster City Council’s controversial and unpopular motorbike parking charges are predicted to make a loss of over £430,000 in 2009/10, prompting Labour Councillors to call for an immediate scrapping of the £1 a day motorbike parking charge.

According to documents received by Labour Councillors, the Council’s projected income is expected to be £2,022,594, but expenditure is predicted to be £2,453,094, resulting in a loss to the Council of £430,500.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“These figures show beyond doubt that not only are Westminster’s motorbike charges unpopular, controversial and divisive, but they are also a financial disaster for Westminster Council Tax payers”

“Why should Westminster residents have to subsidise these massive loss-making motorbike parking charges which nobody wants and nobody voted for? The £430,000 could be much better spent on services for people in need.”

“Following the £17 million in Icelandic Banks and the £20 million shortfall in parking revenue, this latest Conservative financial blunder shows the Council’s finances in total tatters. Only Westminster Conservatives could introduce a charge that actually makes a loss. These loss-making charges should be scrapped without further delay. If the Conservatives don’t scrap this loss making charge now then Labour will do so after the May elections.”

Well done, Chalkley, that’s another cock-up of yours! Let’s hope that he now has the decency to scrap his loss-making motorcycle parking tax and not waste one more penny of taxpayers’ money.

Sources:-

Westminster Labour Matters

No To Bike Parking Tax forum

Further reading:-

Motorbike lame duck tax set to cost WCC taxpayers £430,000

Scrap the bike hike’ – opposition councillors have called for the scrapping of the £1-a-day motorcycle parking charge

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Click on picture to read the Moto Mag article in full (in French)

Back in October 2009, we published a post to explain that, by 2014, Paris will have scrapped 2,500 car parking bays and converted them all into motorbike and scooter parking spaces, in an effort to create a total of 18,000 additional spaces for powered two wheelers (PTWs) (click here to view the post). The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, unlike his Westminster Conservative counterparts in Central London, is obviously very keen to promote the use of motorcycles, as a way to tackle congestion and pollution in the French capital. It goes without saying that these 18,000 additional motorcycle parking spaces will be provided free of charge and with security devices to encourage Parisians to switch from four to two wheels, which is a concept that Councillor Danny Chalkley and Alastair Gilchrist of Westminster City Council have obviously never heard of before.

Well, in an article published in Moto Mag this month (a French leading and highly respected motorcycle magazine), we are pleased to note that, not only the council in Paris has confirmed the creation of 18,000 new parking spaces in the French capital by 2014, but they have also confirmed that there

Paris motorcycle parking bay, free of charge and individually delineated with security devices

are no plans to charge motorcyclists for parking, at least for the foreseeable future. While the Verrus parking system, also known in France as Paybyphone.fr, is now extensively used in the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux (located just outside Paris) together with parking meters, there is no question of using this pay-by-phone parking method to charge PTWs to park. “I don’t think that charging PTWs to park is a viable option from a financial perspective. We have never thought about it and no council has ever asked us to design the system for this purpose”, says Philippe Lerouge, Chief Executive of Paybyphone.fr, in a recent interview with Moto Mag. 

UK France Bikers are actually quite reassured by Mr Lerouge’s statement considering how bad the PayByPhone (Verrus) system has been for motorcyclists in the British Capital. It has broken down on many occasions and failed to send the promised text reminders to its users when a top-up payment was required (you can click here and here again for more details), thus giving Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) the inmense pleasure to issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) to help Westminster City Council recover its £22 million budget overspend, £15 million lost in a failed CCTV system and £17 million invested in now failed Icelandic banks. Not to mention of course how unfriendly this socially exclusive Verrus or PayByPhone system may be for PTW users, who often spend up to 20 minutes on a mobile phone trying to pay for their parking in freezing temperatures or in the pouring rain, while motorists can do this from the comfort of their own car! As Mr Lerouge seems to suggest, PayByPhone has not been designed for motorcycle parking but, nevertheless, Councillor Chalkley continues to cynically use it to stealth tax motorcyclists in his wealthy borough, probably following the advice of Robin Bevan, CEO of Verrus UK, when he says “the launch of our service in Westminster represents a landmark for Verrus – the first time that any pay by phone service has been introduced in the UK as the only form of payment. This has exciting implications for parking in the future”.

Paris is not the only French city to say NON to the bike parking tax. Nantes have confirmed in writing that they have given up any plans to charge PTW users for parking. The bike parking tax cancer has so far not managed to come out of Westminster, so let’s kill it now while it’s still very local.

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez  http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

But some authorities, whether local or central, don’t seem to realise that motorcycles relieve urban congestion. The key thing to note is that when absurd decisions about motorcycles are made, such as stealth taxing motorcyclists to park in the Central London Borough of Westminster, they are always made by bureaucrats who have not got the slightest idea of the benefits that bikes can bring to the environment. Has Councillor Danny Chalkley of Westminster City Council ever put his arse on a motorbike or scooter? Had he realised how motorcycles benefit the environment, he certainly wouldn’t have so drastically imposed a parking tax on their users to fill up his council’s coffers, would he?

"WE ARE NOT CARS!"

Danny Chalkley is unfortunately not the only bureaucrat in the world who fails to recognise the benefits of powered two wheelers (PTWs) on the roads. We have recently learned that a national protest will take place on 13th March 2010 all over France against a Government announcement to increase the number of fines issued to motorcyclists caught to filter through the traffic, especially in a traffic jam situation.

La Fédération Française des Motards en Colère, also known as FFMC (the direct English translation being the French Federation of Angry Bikers, which is an on-going and permanent protest group to defend and protect the rights of motorcyclists in France), are calling their thousands of members spread all over the country to join them on 13th March 2010 in a protest to show Michèle Merli, in charge of road safety in France, how stupid and absurd her proposal is. The protest will consist of each motorbiker or scooterist taking the space of one car on each lane of the road, thus creating enormous traffic jams in every French city, which will take hours to clear. To Michèle Merli’s recent message “They [motorcyclists] must not go faster than cars… otherwise they should commute by public transport”, the FFMC’s response is very clear: if you treat motorbikes and scooters like cars, they will behave like cars and cause congestion. The FFMC’s intention is to make the Government realise the absurdity of their proposal by showing them the disruptive effect that it will have on the roads. We must say that we are amused by Michèle Merli’s non-sense statement, which is comparable to one made by Westminster Tory Councillor Susie Burbridge “Being environmentally friendly would be to encourage motorbikers to use more public transport”, as if of course a London double-decker bus did not cause any pollution and congestion at all!

We thought we would write a post about this French protest, to not only show the FFMC our strong support for all what they do on the other side of the English Channel, but also because we are amused to see that the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign in the UK is now organising similar gatherings every Wednesday morning in Central London during rush hour to show Westminster Council that, if motorbikes and scooters are treated like cars by charging them to park, they will behave like cars, congest and cause traffic jams all over Central London.

It is really sad that educated people such as bureaucrats and other politicians are unable to use their brain to consider the impact of their proposals before implementing them. There’s only one way around this, which is to cause massive embarrassment by showing for real how absurd a decision of theirs can be.

Sources (in French):

Manif du 13 mars : faire reconnaître les spécificités des 2RM

Pour la reconnaissance des spécificités des 2RM, mobilisation générale le 13 mars!

Concertation 2RM : le sacro-saint “respect des règles

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Thousands of motorcyclists protesting outside Westminster City Hall

We can’t agree more with Warren - thousands of motorcyclists have so far peacefully expressed their opposition to being stealth taxed for parking in Westminster and have been completely ignored by a bunch of arrogant Conservative fat cats, who will be having a civic dinner on 9th March 2010 in the Northumberland Hotel, one of the most prestigious venues in Central London, using the millions of pounds that they have so far unfairly (and potentially illegally) taken from the public, including motorcyclists, who have had to pay a parking tax without any justification whatsoever. This civic dinner, costing taxpayers £23,000 according to Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg (Leader of the Labour group at Westminster Council), also comes at a time when Westminster Council has made hundreds of their employees redundant, who are now without a job and struggling to feed their families, as a result of the Tories’ high incompetence to manage the finances of the wealthiest borough council in the United Kingdom, which now has a budget overspend of £22 million!

Anyway, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign is now more determined than ever to take some painful (but legal) action against Westminster Council in order to force them to scrap their ridiculous motorcycle parking charge. Peaceful talks, protests and negotiations have been ignored, so now has come the time for direct and painful action, where it really hurts.

Northumberland Hotel, where the Westminster Conservative fat cats will have their civic dinner on 9th March 2010

As we mentioned last week in one of our posts, hundreds of bikers will take an inmense pleasure in disrupting the Westminster Conservative civic dinner on 9th March 2010, by causing big traffic jams all around Trafalgar Square and embarrassing the Westminster Tories and their guests, who will inevitably be stuck in traffic or forced to park their polluting hummer miles away from the venue, while the bikers will be taking care of them, as they finally manage to approach the Northumberland Hotel.

Gridlock caused in Trafalgar Square by just a few angry bikers!

Every Wednesday morning and until Councillor Danny Chalkley finally scraps his motorcycle parking tax, hundreds of motorcyclists, who will have previously registered with the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, will receive a wake-up call by SMS advising them of meeting points across Westminster where they will gather and from which traffic jams, described as ’bottlenecks’, will be created during rush hour. This sounds like great fun, doesn’t it? After all, why would bikers be worried about disrupting the schedule of thousands of road commuters, who will inevitably get to work late, when tube drivers have no issues with disrupting thousands of underground commuters when they go on strike?

There is only one person to blame and that is Councillor Danny Chalkley. He’s the one who has decided to ignore thousands of objections to his motorcycle parking tax and is also the one forcing the same motorcyclists to cause gridlock in Westminster every Wednesday morning during rush hour. But if he still refuses to scrap the bike parking tax, how long will it take protestors to cause gridlock in Westminster two, three if not four times a week or more?

We now leave you with a short video which will give you an idea of the type of traffic jam that only a few angry motorcyclists can cause in less than 10 minutes! The Conservatives in Westminster treat motorcycles like cars, so they will behave on the roads like cars, until the bike parking tax is scrapped!

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Westminster Council had their parking enforcement contract with a company called National Car Parks Limited (also known as NCP) until March 2007, when such company was sold and broken up into smaller companies. One of the companies that was created as a result is called NSL Services with which Westminster Council have had their parking enforcement contract until now. Under European Union law, all contracts worth more than £156,442 must be opened to tender to enable fair competition between businesses and must also be advertised in the EU’s official journal. Because Westminster Council’s parking enforcement contract was worth around £13 million, i.e. a lot more than the minimum threshold of £156,442, it had to be opened to tender, as a result of the United Kingdom being a full member state of the European Union.

Allegations made by the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign show that no tender process was undertaken to appoint another company (following the sale of NCP) to run Westminster’s parking enforcement activities and that the contract was directly offered to NSL Services, without allowing fair competition, as legally required by the European Union legislation.

This appears to be a very serious issue which is now under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, under crime number 6507270/10. It is believed that the reason why Westminster Council were reluctant to follow the European tendering rules was to avoid losing parking revenue while contracts were being tendered.

But Westminster Council may not be the only local authority involved in this potential fraud. About 30 councils across the United Kingdom currenty use or have used NSL Services to run their parking enforcement activities, so which council will be next to be suspected of a crime and be reported to the Metropolitan Police?

As we understand it, the matter was initially brought to the attention of the District Auditor, but because the suspected fraud took place during the financial year 2007/08, it is now too late for them to investigate it further. However, the District Auditor advised Warren Djanogly that any evidence of alleged fraud or misconduct must be handed to the police, which is exactly what has been done.

Westminster Tories refused to listen to thousands of motorcyclists who objected to their motorcycle parking tax and demanded full scrapping of the charge. As a result, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign group started to investigate the way parking operations were run in Westminster and discovered the potential fraud described above. It is interesting to read Warren Djanogly’s explanation:-

“WCC’s [Westminster City Council's] decision to become the first Council in Europe to introduce parking charges for motorcycles came with the assurance that it would be “Revenue-Neutral”, that is where revenue generated via its Pay-By-Phone contractor, Verrus UK merely covered implementation & enforcement costs. Disbelieving that a Council would spend-a-pound-to-make-a-pound, we investigated these “implementation” costs only to discover violations of EU procurement with regards to the awarding of that Pay-By-Phone contract. Notified that the EU Commissioners had been alerted by others, and encouraged that the OFT [Office of Fair Trading] would consider a dossier we prepared (http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Demand-for-a-Public-Inquiry.pdf ), we switched our attention to the enforcement aspect, following Mr Herron’s lead, and were not surprised to find the same individuals within WCC involved in this scandal.

Our suspicions of foul play were raised when, not only did it take WCC over 6 weeks to produce a copy of a Deed of Novation claimed to have been signed in March 2008, but that this transfer of the 3rd largest contract award by WCC was supposedly sanctioned by the same officer as involved in the suspect contract awards without either any delegated power to do so by the Council Cabinet Member, or involvement by the WCC internal Legal Department. Regardless of my position as Chairman of a Campaign group against WCC, it was my civic duty to take the evidence collected to the proper authority”.

While the police is investigating the issue, the No To Bike Parking Tax campaigners have been asked to write to their MP (Member in Parliament) to not only make them aware of the above allegations, but also to precisely establish what course of action each MP will be taking to protect the rights of their constituents, who could potentially have been paying hundreds of pounds each in parking fines issued under illegal enforcement contracts.

Since Westminster Council is a Conservative lead local authority, how does all this sound in the run up to the local and general elections for the Tories?

Sources (click to view):-

Police probe parking ‘fraud’ at Westminster Council

Fraud Office probe demanded into Westminster Council

No To Bike Parking Tax forum

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Well, while having our daily promenade in the streets of Westminster at lunch time yesterday, we spotted another Council vehicle illegally parked on a single yellow line. This time, it was a naughty van driver who took the initiative to break their employer’s parking rules on Upper Montagu Street, London W1, thinking that they wouldn’t be seen by some cheeky continental motorcyclists.

Westminster Council van parked on a single yellow line in the middle of a working day - REGISTRATION: LG57 CZT

We initially thought that the driver had only committed a simple and straight forward parking offence, until we walked towards the back of the van and noticed that there was a white arrow painted on the ground that was pointing right in the opposite direction from that of the front of the vehicle. So not only had this Westminster Council fat cat illegally parked their van on a single yellow line, without of course being issued with a PCN, but they also appeared to have driven on the wrong side of the road to reach their illegal parking space!

Westminster van parked on a single yellow line and in the opposite direction from the flow - REGISTRATION: LG57 CZT

Oh, sacré bleu, mon cher monsieur! This is just incroyable, n’est-ce pas? A parking offence together with a clear breach of the highway code! We wonder how many points should have been taken off the driving licence of this Westminster Council employee, in addition to receiving a parking ticket. But because Westminster staff have always felt above everyone else, why would they bother driving and behaving like everyone else?

This is another example of Conservative Councillor Danny Chalkley’s firm, fair and excellent parking policy. One set of rules for the public and another for himself, his colleagues and his staff is indeed very fair. Let’s not forget that being firm and fair for Chalkley also includes holding a free Westminster wide parking permit for his car and that of his fellow Tory colleagues, while he takes an inmense pleasure in stealth taxing motorcyclists to park with the socially exclusive pay by phone Verrus system and increase parking fares for motorists to help his council recover a £22 million budget overspend. Remember, that’s called a firm, fair and excellent parking policy.

So rule number one for everyone from now on: take a camera with you every time you visit the streets of Westminster and send us some nice and interesting pictures for publication! Oh la la, we have never enjoyed walking in Westminster so much since Chalkley has introduced his motorcycle parking stealth tax! We have discovered a complete different way of visiting a foreign city, that is on foot, taking pictures and videos of its entertaining roads! That is, of course, until Chalkley decides to stealth tax pedestrians for using what he may believe to be an increasingly demanded pavement space.

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

Northumberland Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, Central London

All UK based motorcyclists are invited to attend an annual civic dinner, organised by the No To Bike Parking Tax group on 9th March 2010 from 6pm onwards, just outside the Northumberland Hotel (right), Northumberland Avenue, off Trafalgar Square in Central London.

Coincidentally, the bikers’ annual civic dinner will be taking place at the same time and venue as the Westminster Council’s one, during which all the Westminster Tory fat cats and their guests will be enjoying a nice evening out in the warmth of a first class London venue and at the expense of their victimised taxpayers, including motorcyclists who have been stealth taxed for parking for the past 18 months against their will.

Since the Westminster Tories will be dining at the Northumberland Hotel on the £2 million or so that they have stolen from motorcyclists through the bike parking tax, the said motorcyclists are left with no money to hire a nice venue for their civic dinner this year, so they have decided to go for a free option which is a dinner “al fresco”, in the street, outside Northumberland Hotel. Although the bikers’ menu will be very basic compared with what the Northumberland Hotel will be offering their inside guests, a meal composed of eggs, flour, milk and baked beans with tomato sauce should be good enough to open the appetite of the Westminster Conservative fat cats and their guests as they enter the venue wearing the nicest clothes they have in their wardrobe for the occasion.

Mary Poppins entering the Northumberland Hotel through the chimney

For those who will be attending Westminster’s annual civic dinner and prefer to avoid having their aperitif with the motorcyclists, perhaps you may want to join Mary Poppins who will be entering the venue through the chimney. We have inserted a picture of Mary Poppins on the right to show you what she looks like, but don’t forget to pay a visit to the Northumberland’s bathroom before joining the dinner party!

As motorcyclists will be joining the party and having dinner in their open air venue, it is likely that they will unintentionally cause a little bit of congestion and disruption on the Central London roads from 5pm onwards, particularly in the Trafalgar Square area and around the Northumberland Hotel. On behalf of all of them, we apologise in advance for the inconvenience this may cause to your afternoon and evening, including those Westminster Conservative Councillors who will be desparately trying to park their polluting and congesting four wheel vehicles around the Northumberland Hotel, presumably using their free official parking permit. After all, when two distinct groups share the same venue for their annual civic dinner, parking is on a first come first served basis, so we would advise all bikers to come and park early to avoid disappointment and make sure they secure a space close to the venue.

Of course, should the Westminster Tory fat cats wish to have a nice and peaceful civic dinner with their guests on 9th March 2010, all they have to do is scrap the bike parking tax by then, so that motorcyclists may decide to have their annual civic dinner in the comfort of their own home that evening. One simple decision can make a big difference. In the meantime, please join the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign group on 9th March 2010 outside the Northumberland Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, Central London for a nice meal made up of eggs, flour, milk and baked beans in tomato sauce. Humm, we are getting hungry already!

Source (click to view):-

No To Bike Parking Tax forum

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.

This has come to us as a complete shock following Chalkley’s recent proposals to extend parking control hours from 6.30pm to midnight in an attempt to balance the council’s books, which show a massive budget overspend of £22 million. It sounds like Chalkley has recently pissed off thousands of Westminster residents, commuters, visitors and businesses with his ridiculous parking policies, purely designed to rescue a broken Conservative lead council. The extension of parking control hours after 6.30pm would generate an enormous loss of £70 million for the West End theatre industry. Motorcyclists have been protesting for the past 18 months at the imposition of a parking tax on them by Chalkley, who has simply refused to properly consider thousands of objections, which all requested him to scrap the charge.

With the Westminster Council elections taking place this coming May and Councillor Chalkley, together with his Tory colleagues, having pissed off thousands of local voters, we wonder whether their latest move to let motorists escape from their parking contravention without penalty is not a desparate last minute attempt to regain thousands of potential lost votes. Have Chalkley and his chums realised that they’ve just gone a step too far with their parking policies to the extent that they fear losing the forthcoming elections? We strongly believe that, should Chalkley be re-elected in May, the minute that follows his re-election, he will instruct all CEOs to issue tickets again as normal.

What actually made us smile is when we heard that Chalkley was going to ask CEOs to look for any parking signs defaced by graffiti. Since almost all the signs that have been defaced to date in the Borough of Westminster are for motorcycle parking, it is clear that Chalkley’s intention is not to give any concessions to motorcyclists. He hates motorcycles, we very well know that, and all he’s interested in is make money out of bikers, who use a non-congesting and less polluting mode of transport to benefit the environment.

But we have today learned that hundreds of motorcyclists will be having great fun along with the Tory Councillors and their guests on 9th March at the Westminster’s annual civic dinner, which is due to take place at the magnificent five-star Northumberland Hotel in Trafalgar Square, Central London. After all, motorcyclists might well join the party since it is their money that is being spent to keep a bunch of dishonest Tory Councillors entertained. Motorcyclists have been asked to bring eggs, flour and baked beans to the party to make it more enjoyable…

Sources (click to view):-

You might be let off with a warning (Evening Standard)

Westminster parking attendants to give ’soft option’

Please join and support the campaign to stop Westminster Council from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their scheme spreads all over the UK and the rest of Europe. For further details, visit http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

Rejoignez le groupe de manifestants contre le stationnement payant des motocyclistes a Westminster avant que cela ne se propage dans le reste du Royaume-Uni et l’Union Europeenne. Pour plus d’informations, consultez  http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/

If you have a story you would like to see published on UK France Bikers.com, please contact us here.

Si vous avez une experience a partager et que vous souhaiteriez voir publiee sur UK France Bikers.com, n’hesitez pas a nous contacter en cliquant ici.