Against the parking fee rises - sign the petition

I'm not a motorist but I can see what Barnet council are up to with their proposals to raise parking fees: plug the gap in their finances which results from a combination of the overall cuts to public services and their own incompetence. It's not on! The Barnet Press has an interview with an angry resident, Shaun Fabian, who lives in a Controlled Parking Zone. He will be charged £100 in future instead of £40, just for parking in front of his own home:

"All the bays are already paid for, there's no maintenance and the administration doesn't cost any more so I don't think the council could justify even a one pence rise. The money is obviously going to go towards something else.

"We already pay our council tax for services, so this is like an additional tax."

The Press outlines some of the other increased charges (they like to call it "optimising revenue income"), including a trebling of allotment fees and charging businesses more for trade refuse sacks.

Most upsetting, they also plan to charge users of social services for more services (they call this "fairer charging"). (This is not in the Press article, but as an issue deserves a whole campaign in its own right.)

The other scandalous element in all this is that councillors get a park-anywhere-you-like-for-free permit.

The Barnet Bugle blogger has started a petition, "We are not cash cows", on Barnet council's official petition site: spread the word. People should sign it for the name alone!