Look at these pretty ladies who are all bikers!

Too many members of the public, including politicians, believe that motorcyclists are dangerous, rude and rogue male species causing trouble on the roads. A fair proportion of those men believe that motorbikes and scooters are for male use only, thus systematically discriminating the opposite sex.

UK France Bikers believe that motorcycling is for everyone – male/messieurs as well as female/mesdames and mesdemoiselles. Both men and women have equal rights on the roads, including when riding motorcycles. So messieurs les motocyclistes, would you please stop assuming that you own the motorcycling industry, because you clearly don’t. If you don’t believe us, then read on.

No to motorcycling discrimination!

We say well done to Anne & Annie, organisers of the event

On 7th March 2010, more than 250 female bikers, fed up with being discriminated by their male counterparts, rode through the streets of Paris, to ensure that their rights and presence on the roads were recognised and acknowledged. Damn right, ladies, you have indeed the right to be treated in exactly the same way as those cheeky men who think they own the roads because they show their muscles or may ride a bigger motorbike than yours. We say well done to the ladies who made their voices heard and proved to the public, and the politicians, that not all motorcyclists were cheeky and arrogant boys!

We thought we would dedicate this post to Conservative Councillor Susan (Susie, as she claims to be) Burbridge, of Westminster City Council in Central London, who, in response to an email that was sent to her by a motorcyclist, angry at the introduction of a parking tax that she voted for, stated:-

“To my mind, your notice is not a warning I see it as a threat.
Bully-boy tactics until you get your own way. A common symptom of the male species.”

No Susan, as you can see, not all motorcyclists are dirty men, some of them are like yourself, nice women of all ages!

To whom it may also concern…

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, it sounds like the French Government are now starting to seriously regret to have made such stupid proposals. With 40,000 bikers bringing the whole country to a standstill, we have been made aware that Dominique Bussereau (Transport Secretary) subsequently met with the  Fédération Française des Motards en Colère (FFMC - the French Federation of Angry Bikers) to discuss. And guess what? Mr Bussereau suddenly recognised that with the increasing number of motorcyclists on the French roads, which contribute to significantly reduce congestion and pollution, it was important to take into account their safety and concerns. Filtering through traffic may not be that bad after all, and might now become legal in France, subject to the introduction of a more robust motorcycle training course, designed to make new motorcyclists aware of the dangers they may face on the roads, including those associated to traffic filtering. Can you see how the French Government has just changed its tone overnight? They’ve gone from a categoric “NON” to a possible ”OUI mais…”.

Having said that, another reason why 40,000 bikers invaded the French roads and public transport in quite a few cities and towns last Saturday is because they remain opposed to bikes being obliged to go through a safety and mechanical test on an annual basis (such as the UK MOT test), again like cars do. We are told that the FFMC, who organised this massive and spectacular national protest, was created 30 years ago to fight against a Government proposal to introduce an annual road tax for motorcycles. Of course, while cars had to pay the French road tax, bikes never had to, as a result of the enormous protests that were organised at the time by the FFMC, pretty much like the one that took place last Saturday. The FFMC has advised that the Government failed to carry out appropriate consultation prior to announcing their intention to force motorbikes and scooters to go through this annual mechanical and safety test, hence their call to all bikers to go down the street and protest en masse.

So we now have a Government that potentially says yes to traffic filtering subject to more robust motorcycle training and no to giving up their proposals for the introduction of a safety and mechanical test for bikes. It is this double-tone that the FFMC now seems to be unhappy with, to the extent that they’ve threatened to organise further demonstrations all over France, until the Government is brought to complete submission.

UK France Bikers remain confident that the FFMC will win, once again, as they have always done! Hats off to them!

Power to the people!

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 just learned that Paris was not (see our previous post, click here) the only city in France where bikers had decided to take possession of the local public transport, following the French Transport Secretary, Jean-Marc Belotti, who said that “If they [bikers] are not happy, they can take the metro like everyone else”.

Bikers descend en masse to the Paris metro, following the Government's advice to take public transport if they're not happy!

Well, while most major cities in France have a metro or underground network to get around town, smaller cities don’t. 1,500 bikers demonstrated on Saturday in the eastern town of Nancy, where not only did they block the roads in the town centre, but also jumped on buses en masse, with their helmets on, and preventing everyone else from getting on to the local public transport. They occupied all the seats straight away, so no one could possibly sit down, and they also made sure that every little space was occupied by a motorcyclist. The authorities want bikers to use public transport if they’re not happy, what a great suggestion! Not only can they use it but they can also block it and bring it to a complete standstill if they want to. Oh dear, what a bad suggestion the Government has made, haven’t they? We have heard that bikers will do this again once a week if the Government doesn’t scrap their proposals immediately. Power to the people!

Bikers take over a bus in Nancy, as advised by the Government, if they're not happy!

Bikers occupy every seat on the bus to make sure no one else can sit down! Who said they had to take public transport if they're not happy?

In Bordeaux, hundreds of bikers also took possession of the overground train system. They all jumped on the train, called “tram”, thus blocking everyone else from getting on board and blocking the train at the same time, causing gridlock on the whole network.

Bikers try to jum on a local train in Bordeaux, causing gridlock on the whole network!

Who said that bikers had to take the public transport if they were not happy? UK France Bikers have heard that the French Government is now seriously regretting what they’ve said…

Rule number one for everybody – never piss off and mess up with a biker, especially if they happen to be French!

We wonder whether British bikers are going to follow the example of their French colleagues in taking the London public transport en masse, in response to Councillor Susie Burbridge of Westminster City Council, who advised:-

“Who ever said going green would be free. Motorbikes as other vehicles with engines cause pollution, take up road space, have a cost implication, pro rata I believe a higher level of accidents also in town. Being environmentally friendly would be to encourage motorbikers to use more public transport.”

Keep an eye on the bikers, Transport for London (TfL)!

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.

10,000 bikers on the Paris peripherique

Last month, we published a post where we said that thousands of motorcyclists were expected to demonstrate all over France in protest at a recent Government announcement to fine any bikers caught filtering through the traffic. Well, the demonstrations took place yesterday, 13th March 2010. More than 60 cities and towns saw their roads blocked by thousands of angry bikers who said NON to the French authorities who keep treating motorbikes, scooters and mopeds like cars.

The French Government have recently announced their intention to take draconian measures against bikers who overtake cars and filter in between them in traffic jams by issuing expensive fines. They expect every bike to stay in lane, like cars, behind each other, and not go any faster than them. How stupid is that? Paris, for instance, but also Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse are already very congested cities due to the high number of cars in circulation, and the Government is keen to add more pressure on the roads by forcing Powered Two Wheelers (PTW) to behave like cars.

They treat us like cars, we will behave like cars!

La Fédération Française des Motards en Colère (FFMC - the French Federation of Angry Bikers) urged all motorcyclists on the other side of the Channel to protest and, as a result, France saw a total of 40,000 motorcyclists gathered on the roads yesterday, with 10,000 of them in Paris alone. Parisian motorcyclists joined the FFMC at 2pm at Château de Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris. There were already 5,000 bikers at 1.30pm, another 2,200 joined between 1.30pm and 2pm and the rest joined during the demonstration.

If one car = one bike, let's see the results!

Angry bikers took over the whole périphérique (the express road running around the centre of Paris), each occupying the space of one car in each lane. Within minutes, an enormous traffic jam was created by these 10,000 motorcyclists, thus gridlocking the whole of Paris on a busy Saturday afternoon, when Parisians go out to do their shopping and visit friends and relatives. The result was absolutely spectacular, car drivers were stuck in traffic until late in the evening by the time all the traffic jams cleared.

Let’s cause massive disruption in the metro!

Did you say bikers, if not happy, had to take the metro like everyone else? Fine, let's do it!

For anyone who decided to leave their car at home and take the metro instead, unfortunately that didn’t help. In response to a statement made by the French Transport Secretary, Jean-Marc Belotti, who said “If they [bikers] are not happy, they can take the metro like everyone else”, protestors took over the Paris underground network. While some bikers continued to block the roads and cause standstill overground, others went down the underground en masse and occupied an entire train, thus bringing the entire line to a complete stop. We let you imagine the outcome if thousands of motorcyclists left their bike at home and commuted by tube. This is valid in London too, if Westminster City Council continue to stealth tax bikers to park, thus increase the cost of motorcycling. Next time, Mr Belotti will think twice before opening his mouth!

UK France Bikers are very proud indeed of the FFMC and their actions to protect the rights of motorcyclists in France. The FFMC is a real example to follow for everyone. It is now time that public authorities, wherever they are in the world, realise that they’re not above everyone else. To the contrary, they are there to serve the people who elected them.

They inconvenience us, we will inconvenience them! Power to the people!

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.

So Westminster Council’s parking department now has to start from scratch and go through the whole process of tendering the contract again. This comes at a time when the EU Commissioners are investigating the creation and implementation of the Westminster lead Partnerships in Parking (PiP) scheme, whereby other councils are actively encouraged to adopt Westminster’s parking arrangements with the Verrus pay-by-phone parking system, in exchange for a nice and comfortable fee. PiP is accused to blatantly encourage other local authorities throughout London and the rest of the UK to adopt the cashless Verrus system without going through the statutory tendering process, as per the European Union regulations. Alastair Gilchrist, creator of the PiP scheme at Westminster City Council, was scheduled to give a presentation on PiP last week at the ParkEx exhibition in London, but failed to turn up for it, claiming that he was too busy working on other things! UK France Bikers have heard that PiP has been put on hold until further notice, while the EU Commissioners are investigating this potentially illegal scheme.

All this fiasco also comes at a time when the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign has lodged an official complaint with the Metropolitan Police against two senior officers employed by Westminster City Council, suspected to have carried out fraudulent activities in awarding a £13 million parking enforcement contract to NSL Services Ltd in 2007 without tender, as required by the European Union legislation. The same No To Bike Parking Tax campaign has also recently lodged a legal case with the High Court of Justice against Westminster City Council for having implemented a motorcycle parking charging scheme with the sole purpose of raising revenue, which is illegal under United Kingdom law.

Neil Herron, of Parking Appeals said: “Westminster is supposed to be the flagship parking enforcement authority and yet, once again, we have another blunder. We have seen illegal controlled parking zones, diplomatic bays not compliant and police investigations.

It is about time a full, independent investigation was conducted into the whole of the parking enforcement regime.”

All this mess reflects the incompetence of not only the parking officers at Westminster City Council but also that of the council’s legal department. Now that Westminster have made the decision not to renew their parking enforcement contract with NSL Services and that the whole contract has to be re-tendered, we wonder whether Councillor Danny Chalkley will be kind enough to allow road users to park for free in his Borough in the meantime to cover up the council’s recent cock-up. We can always dream…

Warren Djanogly, Chairman of No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, said “Clearly, the Police investigation following my complaint about alleged irregularities that led to NSL Ltd performing the Westminster City Council’s [WCC] Parking Enforcement Contracts has sharpened the minds of the legal department. The resultant debacle of scrapping the new contracts award, to my mind, can only add credence to the allegation that the contracts themselves may well have been far from as legally-watertight as WCC and NSL Ltd want the world to believe. Whilst we await an announcement from WCC, should the Police find the allegations warranted and that NSL Ltd should never have been party to the current contracts, serious questions must be levelled at WCC should they choose to now extend the current contracts to NSL Ltd to cover the new tender process”.

Further reading:-

Inquiry call after Westminster Council admits bungle

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 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/

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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.

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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.