At last… Barrow is out!
Cllr Colin Barrow is out, and we see Westminster Council’s dream of night-time parking charges about to fade to a distant nightmare.
This is a great victory for the combined forces of the “No To The Bike Parking Tax” campaign and the “We are against Westminster City Council new parking regulations” campaign. I am sure all at NTBPT are pleased for the businesses and workers of Westminster and are relieved that such a destructive policy has failed.
Westminster Council now need to get rid of the Bike Parking Tax.
We have done our bit for the night-time workers; now we need to remind Westminster Council what our main agenda is, and at the same time let them know we won’t go away until the Tax goes away.
This is a good time to make a difference. Check the NTBPT forums for upcoming events and please try to attend as we need to strike while the iron is hot.
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RETURN OF THE WEDNESDAY EVENING SUPPER CLUB
WEDNESDAY 25 JAN …………….. BE THERE !!!
It’s Burns Night, our first meet of the New Year and a lot has happened so far, the Night Time tax has been killed off, Barrow is going (would rather he had actually gone though), and we are hoping that others will be following him.
But on Wednesday the 25th January we have our first Olympic Jubillee Demo ride at Trafalgar Square.
So come along and let No.10, WCC and Her Maj know what they can look forward to in their special year of 2012.
arrive 17:30 @ Villiers street for 18:00 departure
(Forecast is a bit damp so bring waterproofs)
NTBPT Campaign accounts published, links below
Below are links to the full accounts for all donations and expenses for the NTBPT campaign, can you believe we raised a staggering £89,594.40! Bank statement scans and lists of donors (names censored) are available, as well as all legal costs broken down. Any questions please contact [email protected]
- Account summary & overview of documents for NTBPT Accounts (PDF 94kb)
- Aug 09 to Jul 10 censored bank statements pt 1 (PDF 3.3mb)
- Aug 10 to May 11 censored bank statement pt 2 (PDF 4.4mb)
- Lawyer Costs & Funds Received Schedule (PDF 717kb)
- NTBPT Legal Fund Donors XLS – Names Censored (Excel XLS 344kb)
The High Court Judgement itself in full
Naturally, the whole NTBPT Campaign, and a huge number of outside supporters, are immensely disappointed with the Court’s decision. Before WCC trot out the usual diatribe of “hoping to draw a line underneath this”, let it be clearly understood that there are no large females singing on this side!
Whilst grounds for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court have been submitted to this court (see points 18 onwards of attachment), the anticipated refusal means our case will be taken to Europe, but this time against the UK Government, where legal-aid negates the need for any further fundraising.
We are keen to see whether the ECJ agrees that:-
1) The requirement that an actual experiment must support any “Experimental Traffic Order” can be ignored – when it comes to parking
2) Accurate data upon which Councillors base crucial decisions when adopting new traffic schemes need not be adhered to, since such data is “only a projection”
3) A traffic benefit of demand management need not be supported by any scientific evidence of claimed “increase in demand”
4) Legislation allows for a local authority to declare the termination of discriminatory treatment between different vehicle types, based upon its own ideas of ‘fairness’. (see points 22 to 24 of attachment)
5) The requirement to consult in a fair, conscientious & considered manner can be deemed fulfilled even when all the consultees are deliberately misled as to the actual justification.
We have always maintained that this scheme was intended to raise revenue. The notion that the residents were to be beneficiaries could have lent a modicum of justification to this charge. But this was simply not the case as WCC admitted the scheme was sold as being ‘revenue-neutral’ to the other Councillors, and presented in court as costing the residents a projected £400k per annum.
The actual beneficiaries were to be the two private companies contracted to collect & enforce the scheme – both with unacceptably close links to certain councillors & officers; both of whose contract awards were mired in allegations of collusion & corruption; and both with separate complaints either previously investigated or under investigation by the EU Commission.
Only last month, WCC squandered £600k on an out-of-court settlement rather than have the parking enforcement contract award examined under the public glare of a court case.
However, it was a secondary revenue stream resulting from the new technology of Pay-By-Phone parking – identified by the scheme’s architect Alistair Gilchrist – that we say was the real motivation behind this scheme. As proved by other agencies like DVLA, the trading in the personal data of motorists has a ready and lucrative marketplace. Income was to be derived by selling it through a private limited company, Westco Trading Ltd, and could then be distributed as ‘bonuses’. This found great favour amongst a less than reputable WCC inner-sanctum.
This campaign has long asked why any council should ever need its own private limited company. Could the requirement on all councils to lay open all items of account for a 20-day period lead to the conclusion that WCC have something to hide?
At Point 29 of this judgement, it is stated: ‘The important point is that, in my judgement, the ultimate decision-maker, the Cabinet Member, was not materially misled by the information with which he was provided’. At Point 32 (in reiterating the original judgement): ‘It was ultimately for the Cabinet Member to make a judgement.’
Our view is that this particular Cabinet Member, being Mr Gilchrist’s flatmate and Co-Director of Westco Trading, Cllr. Danny Chalkley, was also due to benefit financially, and therefore no amount of mis-information would have had any impact on his decision.
Had this information been permissible in this case, we feel sure that neither Judge would have seen Cllr. Chalkley as being the best arbiter of any objections to the scheme.
At point 12 the judge seems to write off blatant duplicity by WCC by stating that ‘the Council has not always been entirely consistent about the objective sought to be achieved by charging’.
An interesting analysis is offered here by Dr. Leon Mannings, a Transport Policy expert, about the skewed consultation, listing duped consultees including MAG, BMF and a representative of the Motor Cycle Industry Association, who attended a meeting with Cllr Chalkley in June 2009 where assurances were given regarding the reasons for the charge as not being demand management – this fact was also mentioned in court.
This would explain the stance taken by the MCIA Chief Exec in an email dated 23 June 2009 to the campaign:
“Although MCI does not endorse Westminster’s pay for parking scheme, there is an argument to suggest that if carefully designed schemes can be put in place, which have ring fenced revenues which will be ploughed back into greater parking provision and an increased number of secure motorcycle bays, then it may be entirely reasonable to charge a nominal fee for parking a PTW, as this would represent direct value for money for riders (not a perceived tax) and a real expectation of ever improving motorcycle parking.”
We were later encouraged to hear that, following the meeting facilitated by Dr Mannings, the MCIA resolved that, should it ever come to light that this scheme was based on “demand management”, it would reconsider its position – since we were of the opinion that the only serious opposition WCC truly feared was the equally powerful industrialists of the MCIA.
Very early in this campaign, the Tax Payers Alliance calculated that the scheme’s roll-out nationwide could result in the motorcycling community forking out £93m to simply park where it has always been free. It has always been our view that such a massive reduction in the buying power of the UK motorcycling public could not be sustained by a specialised retail sector suffering equally with all other sectors in these austere times.
The judgement handed down today bares testament to the way in which both the MCIA and the industry as a whole were misled by WCC. Perhaps a silver lining of this adverse judgement will be the MCIA and the wider industry undertaking a review of their policy toward the tax now that the ‘official reasons’ are clear to us all, and voicing their opposition to it.
Regrettably, Dr Mannings fails to acknowledge the enormous effort & personal sacrifice of a small group of plucky volunteers that make up this NTBPT Campaign who were not drawn in by councillors’ promises. This resulted in their clubbing together, at great personal cost both in time & finances, to not only bring the legal challenge in the first place, but to successfully quarantine the concept of on-street motorcycle parking charges to the borough of Westminster. Yet the great shame behind this voluntary effort was that requests for assistance from more established lobby groups appeared to fall on deaf ears.
In the meantime, we hope that many of our more ardent supporters can put this particular disappointment behind them and continue to support us as we take the fight to the ECJ, safe in the knowledge that our numbers will inevitably swell as those untouched by the WCC scheme fall victim to similar ones adopted by their own council
Dave (15 July) – following your logic, are you going to ban cars (other than taxis) motorcycles and presumably bicycles and lorries from London streets, to only leave buses and taxis! No bicycles or motorcycles would be a recipe for massively increasing the CO2 emissions, which are already way too high! Motorcycles and bicycles are part of the SOLUTION to congestion and CO2 emissions. The above would also ruin the London economy!! Just because cars already have to pay WAY too much (to basically prop up Council funds) to park, doesn’t make it right to also charge other vehicles – two wrongs don’t make a right. The way things are going, it will start to be bicycles, and even pedestrians, in the future, as they, too, use the streets, don’t they Dave?
As for no cars in Central London, what about the RESIDENTS. Why should they not be allowed to have a car??
Unfortunately, is that not the nature of demonstrations? How many would have voted against the picket lines of Wapping or the coal mines? How many object to the Gay Rights or Anti-Nazi demonstrations and the inconvenience they cause? What about the Lord Mayor’s show? And who knows how much inconvenience will be caused by the London Olympics? And, so as to invoke the age old WWII loss making argument, I wonder how much support the French Resistance lost through their active campaign of disruption?
It is a difficult balance to achieve – gaining publicity and support for your cause without distancing people through inconvenience.
I am new rider and came across this terrible Westminster plans to rip people off again even in this rescission where we are all struggling to live on basics. If this is not over at then i am in and i will to bring in more of my mates to support this further. Good work you all. Please let me know when is the next one and i will be there……
i mean we all be there …….
Hi Gokul,
Welcome to the wonderful world of powered two wheels! Please feel free to come along to the next Breakfast or Supper Club. They happen every Wednesday and we meet at Villiers Street near Embankment tube station. 07.30 for an 08.00 departure and 17.30 for a 18.00 departure respectively. Please tell your mates and bring them too. Hopefully see you there soon!
Looks like they forgot to remind me that my years parking permit had run out!!!!! Now I have a ticket stuck to my bike. Thanks WCC
If they failed to issue a reminder that may be grounds for appeal, if you register on the forum the people there are a number of people who have contested tickets that would gladly offer you some advice
More information on Brussels please.
Prefer tunnel option, its only 40 minutes and one stays with bike.
Barry
I understand your point but this is getting little bit over the edge and makes loads of inconveniences to so many people. This is really selfish.
You might have fun and find it exciting to be circling around the roundabout and beeping your horns but we get stuck in the buses and then miss out trains home which means instead of 7 we get home 11 – 12.
No thank you! If it was one off strike maybe Westminster Council would take it seriously but with strikes every Wednesday twice a day you most probably found the way how to annoy them as well as people trying to get home to spend at least little bit time with their families after a long day at work.
Last Wednesday there was a pregnant women on a bus sitting next to me and had a little one in a bus. The little one was hungry and was tired, thanks to you guys she missed 2 trains and she only has 1 each hour. I can not imagine being in her shoes.
This is ridiculous so please stop it and find some more direct way how to talk to Westminster Council than through innocent people.
Or maybe hop on a bus and you will hear everyone swearing at you and calling you like you wouldnt like.
Thanks for reading,
Lucie
Well done guys, I wish mini cab drivers could do the same. I work for Addison Lee and I’m out for 10 hours a day. Westminster Council expect us to pay and display between jobs. When paked for 2 minutes on single yellow you get PCN and all thanks to CCTV. When you have pick up it is the same, and their answer is that there was no activity around the car for 2minutes. Who is on time when getting pre-booked cab??? Just before yesturday I have received PCN because that bunch of thieves(Westminster) recorded my car when I went to toilet near Victoria. It is all about money. Keeeeeeep going guys
I work in Westminster and bike in now and then. I know all of the local bays and remember Westminster saying the tax would be used to provide better parking facilities.
Westminster Council are complete liars as none of my local bays (Oxford Street area) have been improved. None have rails to attach a chain to. Bays are always crammed and no new bays have appeared here.
Good job guys.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be there that time, but many friends of mine went to that demonstration.
Hi,
Just a thought. It might be an idea to get a ‘LIKE’ button for the Facebook thing.
Cheers
Sorry, just seen it, woops
These Wednesday demonstrations seem to be turning into a social gathering rather than a serious protest against Westminster Council. We all see your point but all you are doing is inconveniencing fellow commuters when you should be giving aggro to the people who work for the Council. Sort it out peeps.
I went on the first M25 ride and it was a bit nightmarish getting on to M25 from Ace café. The group got fragmented only to meet up at South Mimms.
Last Saturday ride was awesome. We all kept together and the marshals were doing a great job keeping us in-lane. I must also congratulate the police for escorting us around M25 great job boys of blue.
Did they get added to the count, technically they were part of the demo!!!
Thanks to NTBPT committee for organizing another ride and bikers for time given being on the demo. See you guys on next ride.
Seriously, dont you think you should be rather at work at 9 am rather than going on with this nonsence?
The real victims in this new government backed rippoff racket are those who either do not have a credit card, or a mobile phone, these folk will not be able to use a bike to go anywhere unless they park on private, extortionately charged parking lots.
Who puts these idiots in the jobs? They need to come into the real world.
Well done to those who are able to support this cause, although it does not affect me, i feel it is unjust and anything you can do to try and prevent its spread is a credit to you all.
Hi,
I’m a new rider, still on CBT so I can’t join you for any demo’s that make use of motorways etc, but after reading all the stats on your site I’m in full support!! – WCC sounds more like a criminal organisation than a genuine council!!
As soon as I get my full “wings” I’ll be in full support!!
Keep up the fight
I’m getting really fed up of these ‘breakfast’ and ‘supper’ clubs. These ‘clubs’ are making me late for work and causing misery on the already long commute home. At first I supported it but as someone has already mentioned, it does come across to me like more like a social gathering than a protest which makes it even more infuriating. Please tell me when this is going to end!
There must be other ways to get the point across.
hi all, live up in the midlands, no parking bays at all for bikes in derby, local council does’nt seem to recognise two wheels, unless its a helicopter chase on the A6 to matlock, keep up the good work, higher profile the better, will try to come down this wednesday.
Lucie what you are saying is to just roll over and die. Also protest from us is not as bad as one from TFL yet people always seem to agree with them doing it when asked. We do not want more money from anyone we just want fair treatment.
CP, Lucie if you want this to be over then get all your car driving mates, all your friends that commute using public transport and make them all get their friends and so on. Then send a note to your local MP and Westmisnter council. The faster charges are removed faster it is all over.
Guys keep up the good work. I am on for next demo as could not do any in summer, no bike. However I was there on foot one time to shout a bit
Mind you I walked in city centre as buses were a night mare.
Oh I have an idea for protest but no idea how legal that is.
We get our bikes and bike covers. We park up on all existing bays, cover the bakes and make sure plate is covered and wardens can not lift the cover (attach it with disc lock). We hang around for couple of hours within rush hour with no payment.
A newcomer to”The Cause” but an old biker(45 years non stop). I am sure this must have been said but this is my take: If the council is REALLY sincere about its goals and claims,the very first thing it must do is deal with the biggest poluters. There is no question that busses and taxis spend all there lives out there,in many cases 24/7 all day every day.Make them all electric “SIMPLES”. Just sit in traffic for a while and look at what comes out of some old and not so old taxis especially when they accelerate hard,I come home and the dirt on my face is incredible.
keep the faith and good work.Paul.
I have attended a couple of the demos and I believe that we are getting through to them at Westminster, but we do need to keep it going and cannot give in. First the bike tax, next the CCTV cars of WCC!
The way to end the Wednesday demos is the complain to WCC, not us. Whilst we are directly concerned with bike parking, we are also uncovering a very corrupt parking regime which affects us all.
The NoToMob have started ‘assisting’ Westminster’s CCTV spy cars as another way to put pressure on them but with a benefit to the public. The next weapon they will roll out will be a new hi-tech spy car that can do the work of 10 CEO’s using computer-linked numberplate recognition. Orwell couldn’t have dreamed it!
Entertaining and informative post! I was looking around on the internet for a post about this and this is the 1st excellent 1 I have read.
To LUKASZ:
Look Lukasz, I am an ordinary person. I do not have money to have a car or a bike. I am happy I am able to pay my monthly ticket to get me to and from work. But it is costing me more coz I always have to find alternative way how to get home. I see you never experienced getting home by public transport which is already annoying so you will never get my point!
If I want this to be over I dont need to do a thing especially wasting more of my spare time on this rediculous thing by asking my mates who have car to do whatever. I do appreciate to have some spare time and can not waste it any more.
You think all of us “upset” people will go and help you your war againts Westminster to make you stop? Is that the main point of all this? I am going to say this to answer: “I am going to write to Westminster and suggest to raise your tax even more!”
And I am not alone here who could support this complete anti action!
I am absolutely fed up because I missed my Grandmas speach last night!
Thanks again you small heroes.
To ESINEM:
you say “The way to end the Wednesday demos is the complain to WCC, not us”.
I do not see why should I complain to them if they do not make my life misserable at all.
It is you bikers who are present at Trafalgar and who make us sit in a bus for 40 minutes to move only 30 metres! Do not be silly of course I will be complaining to you!.
If you upset some-one how do you want him/her to be on your side and to help you?
I would not support you and would only stand against because you and your games only cost me precious time and extra money!
lucie thanks
for your message
just to let you know nobody cares about what you are saying
and specially your granny speach
if we are a small heros a are a big s—t
complain to westiminster and leave us alone
this is very good for you, ybg
Whilst I appreciate where you are coming from on this (we who live and/or work in London all deal with expensive transport, whatever form that transport takes) I do not appreciate the method that you mainly seem to choose for your protest.
As others have said here, commuting by public transport can often be a nightmare anyway (tho’ thank God for Ken, who helped add so many buses). You choose an obviously busy time, to cause the most impact and misery for commuters. 8 to 9am Wednesday morning, and again in the evening (6 to 7 is it?, that always seems a bit vaguer).
You think the parking charges for bikes is unfair? It is also unfair of you to make travel so much more difficult for many thousands of people. It’s not just the immediate environs you impact (as you’ll know), it is all the arteries that feed into and from Trafalgar Square.
I had a lot of sympathy for you to start with, I’m afraid that has been whittled away to almost nothing now. I resent the time it takes me to get to work on a Wednesday morning, now having to head off at 6:30 to ensure I get in for 8:30 (and I only live about 4 miles from the centre).
Do carry on the fight, but please find a more commuter friendly method of doing it. That way you will probably garner more support from fellow London travellers.
Incidentally, I hope you aren’t really comparing your resistance to that of the French Resistance etc. That can’t have been your intention. You being ‘uncovered’ by the authorities would not result in your execution.
Lucie using your logic, any legal protest that slightly inconveniences you you won’t support. That’s sad and selfish. I walked from County Hall to Piccadilly Circus on Wednesday night, it took 5 minutes.(So you could have got off the bus) I saw the bikes at Trafalgar square and thought “good for you”. If someone doesn’t stand up for freedom and fairness in this country whose going to – you. Clearly not!
I ride a bike, I also have a car. The bike doesn’t cause congestion and takes up a 6th of the space of a car on the road and parked. They do no road damage and produce tiny amounts of emissions compared to buses and cars. The reason for the protest is that the council is trying to charge a fee for motorbike parking that is wholly unjustified. It is not a parking charge but a tax and I should know as I’m a tax inspector. It was brought in to punish those who don’t pay the exorbitant congestion charge – another tax as the streets are still congested – the motorcyclists.
Westminster saw them as tax avoiders so brought in the parking charge as a punishment and a way to line their own personal pockets in the process.
So if they want to treat bikes like cars they will act like cars and cause congestion. Remember Lucie, the more people on bikes the faster your bus will get to its destination. If they loose their fight with the council there will be fewer bikes on the road and your bus will sit in a jam all the time. Oh and your fares will go up because your a trapped consumer with no choice of alternative transport.
Oh, and on the matter of cost, if you can afford a bus pass you can afford a bike. £30 – 40 a month will get you a brand new 125cc scooter. Try it, you might enjoy it and you’ll never have to drum your fingers again whilst stuck in a bus in a jam.
Well done ladies and gents of the No to bike parking tax campaign. Your doing a great job.
Please stop your Wednesday madness, it isn’t effecting Westminister council it is effecting me and the thousands of poor souls stuck on buses. You made my working day 13+hours long yesterday! I can see the point of the odd protest but now you are just alienating the public at large!
I am not responsible for the tax! So STOP making my journey home a total nightmare it is selfish and thoughtless and if I am honest I really want the council to double the amount you have to pay! And so did the 10 other people on top of the No.11 bus stuck at Trafalgar Square for 40 minutes last night!!!!
You are doing more harm than good now!
Thank you for reading this message.
The state of Massachusetts just passed some VERY STUPID LAWS regarding low-speed (under 40 mph) Scooters. I have just finished challenging the 3 criminal charges I received for not being in compliance with the new law…a law that is so confusing the Dept. of Motor Vehicles, the cops and the judges don’t even know what exactly is the law. I wrote up my experience on my blog at http://cclemens.typepad.com. But my blog is really about YouTube, and how it has changed the all industries that are involved in communications and art. So I went onto YouTube to find some videos about Scooters, particularly illustrating how STUPID the NEW LAWS are. And I discovered that, in London, the laws are even MORE STUPID!!! But you Brits have the guts to protest….and make your presence felt! Good for you. To think we Yankees used to have the balls to rebel against taxation w/out representation. You Brits are making us look like a bunch of lemmings, now.
Guys thank you very much for this great job you are doing….God Bless you all
My spouse and i surely have to think even more in that area and find out a few things i can do concerning this.
It’s Weds Feb 23 2011 at 8:30 am. I’m sitting at home in front of my computer. Capital Radio tells me there is a motorbike demo blocking traffic by trafalgar square. I go hunting for the reason on google. And Bingo, I come up with this web site. It’s great to hear about the weekly protest. I will pass the news on to other bike riders. And I will also make the effort to turn up and contribute. Keep up the pressure. It’s the only way to succeed. Jack.
In a nutshell: Motorcycling is the future of London, and no argument on that one please. Time for the westminster fatcats to realise this and treat us well. Keep going fellow riders!
As much as I agree with the intentions, please take into account those of us that just might need to get through traffic as quickly as possible, for a damn good reason.
Just leave a couple of metres worth of clear space in front of yourselves, so you can pull into it, and allow the emergency services past.
Most riders were doing just that, but some were less than helpful last time.
Councils and the government are imposing massive cuts that effect all of us. The public seem to be the only group that are not allowed to make cuts. Maybe I can now reply to Westminster Council and tell them that my budget for the payment of taxes has been massively cut back and that unfortunately they are no longer on the list for receiving funds.
Emphasise the corruption not the unfairness.
People love a corruption story it gets their hackles up. Most aren’t bikers and therefore don’t care about fairness.
Bikers, LAWFUL REBELLION is one way of dealing with this. Do not pay the parking charge, they will then issue a Fixed Penalty Notice which you can Lawfully refute. Go to debtbust.fmotl.com to download the template letters to deal with the corrupt system that is oppressing us.
Understand that they trick your ‘legal fiction’ to respond to their notices.
Look up ‘freeman of the land’ to fully understand how we are being shafted by a massive deception.
I HAVE HAD ENOUGH, HAVE YOU?
I agree with your right to protest, but you are serious jerks for enacting that right in the manner that you *did. Very happy to see you lose. My beef is not with your cause but your method of completely inconveniencing the common commuter trying to get to and from work. How is that fair? You could be protesting the illegal incarceration of my gran and I would still think you’re jerks. Keep up the futile attempt!
Having just become a member of this club,i thought you would like to know that at the weekend i was out for a ride and ended up inthe city of LINCOLN So i looked for somewhere to park my bike and pulled into a car park i saw,this car park is called Lucy Tower MSCP where i was charged £2 for parking my bike for the day So it appears that the Rot has already set in in some city’s
Can you ride on the M25 demo if you only hold a CBT?
Seriously. Thanks for making my journey to the airport to make my holiday a misery. Bunch of twats.