Wednesday 31 July 2013

Barnet CPZs: Council should not appeal

Barnet CPZ Action campaigner David Attfield won their recent case for Judicial Review at the High Court. We understand Barnet Council intend to appeal. See below Barnet CPZ Action's latest campaign news. Please sign the petition:
  • You may be interested to hear that David will be on today's Jeremy Vine Radio Two Show at 1.30pm (Wednesday 31 July 2013) in case you are in a position to listen. 
  • As you know,  Barnet may file an Appeal by the end of this week.  Let's show them that residents do not want their hard earned money wasted on this course of action, and they should accept the Judgment given on 22nd July by Mrs Justice Lang DBE.  If you have not yet signed the petition, you can do so here http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/CPZAction/.  This is not limited to Barnet residents, so please ask all your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues to get on and sign.  This is people power in motion.  We need thousands of signatures.
On the broader issues raised by this case, it's my view (and not just mine) that the campaign against the exorbitant hikes in parking fees for residents living in Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) is part of the campaign against central government cuts to local government finances.

CPZs are part of Barnet Council's planned Revenue Income Optimisation (RIO) which is what we all face in future whatever services we use: higher fees where the Council thinks they can levy them.

The cuts to local government funding are wrong and should be fought! No to RIO!

1 comment:

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Unfortunately, the council is run by people who do not think through the consequences of their actions. Its defeat at the High Court was as avoidable as it was predictable. But even if it is granted an appeal hearing, it should desist from such action because any victory will simply serve to antagonise residents further ahead of elections in May. It might win the battle, but it will lose the war.

Parliament has clearly stated its intention that councils cannot make a profit on the parking revenue account to subsidise other operations. If more money is needed to pay for road maintenance issues, it should put a penny on council tax and end this pretence that the charge has been frozen (the public are not stupid) or it should find the money by cutting out several layers of unnecessary bureaucracy or reducing fat cat salaries for chief officers.