| Dear <<First Name>> <<Last Name>>,  In this email:- - A thank you to the supporters.
- The forum is back on-line, join up!
- Details of the next demo "Upping the Ante" (7th Dec 09)
- Info about promotion of the next demo.
- A full explanation of why we ask for a public enquiry.
Firstly, can I thank the 1,000 or so supporters who attended our demo last Saturday and dressed up for it too!, especially bearing in mind that, as demos go, there was no real purpose behind our "taking to the street" save that most basic of democratic principles, our right to protest. Photos are here and here, and a video report will follow shortly, for now check out this video from an avid supporter. As I mentioned at the demo, following a week where not only are proposals a-foot to start charging motorist a fee based on the "mile-travelled", but also the announcement that petrol prices are to rise just prior to the reinstatement of VAT back to 17.5%, and who are the only group standing up ready to fight these money-grabbing bureaucrats – US BIKERS AND SCOOTERISTS!! The Forum is back!!  We are delighted to announce that, with adequate resources to police it, the lack of the same being the main reason for pulling down the original, the forum is back on the website and, as long as you are nothing to do with Westminster City Council who are banned from viewing the forum, we actively encouraging you to participate in what has proved to be a highly-informative, and supportive community, as it is a great way to disseminate valuable information. Join and read the forum here. Our next demo – "Upping the Ante" by demanding a Public Inquiry  And if this doesn’t focus their minds, nothing will, so it is crucial that as many of you guys attend this one, as I shall explain… In brief (please see below for fuller explanation), it is our submission that:- 1) there can be no justification from a value-for-money/best-use-of resources basis for the UK Taxpayers’ £675,000 funding of the formation of the Westminster-led consortium of local authorities called Partnerships-In-Parking (PIP), since the UK Taxpayer will never see a return on this investment. This is especially true with regards the application of the Pay-By-Phone system of charging for bikes due to the proviso that the scheme be "revenue-neutral", therefore identifying the only beneficiaries as being the Directors & Shareholders of the private company running the scheme, ie Verrus UK Ltd. 2) the issuing of the Pay-By-Phone contract to Verrus Uk Ltd constituted violations of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004, specifically Article 32 (2) regarding Framework Agreements, where (i) the Notice and tender documents do not sufficiently identify the contracting authorities to benefit from the Contract, and (ii) the Contract is of excessive duration and prevents or restricts competition. 3) The continued promotion to other Local Authorities (neither previously identified nor originally party to the framework agreement as stipulated in Article 32) of access to this contract in exchange for a Membership fee to join PIP is a continuing violation, as laid out in the Commission’s Explanatory Note "…framework agreements constitute a closed system which no-one else can enter, either as a purchaser or a supplier", by encouraging the joining Member to opt-out of the normal procurement regime and not even publish tender notices, thereby conferring an unfair competitive advantage to Verrus UK Ltd. 4) The contract is in breach of point 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 by abusing the Powers of Well-Being (based on the ruling of the High Court & Court of Appeal in RMP v Brent). …and ASSUMING THE MOTORCYCLE CHARGING SCHEME HAS NOT BEEN SCRAPPED, we are taking this submission back to the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG), who funded Partnerships-In-Parking, who supposedly "awarded" the contract to Verrus to demand a full Public Inquiry, and we want you to do the same. To that end, a templated version, easily adaptable for you to "personalise" will be downloadable nearer the time. Print it out, affix your name to the "Demand" and bring it with you on Monday 7th December 2009, when we will meet at the Park Lane underground Car-park before a mass-rideout to Bressenden Place (via Victoria Street of course) to present our demand, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of people power exercising their democratic rights to the full. Promoting this demo  We hope to have posters & fliers professionally printed and ready for collection by week commencing Mon 16th (maybe earlier) for which we really need your help to ensure that as many outlets have these posters in their windows. More than a few bike shops have agreed to give out the fliers with every shop purchase/sales invoice – please ask whether your local retailer will do the same. In support of this, attaching our fliers to actual bikes has always proved a highly-effective way of spreading the message, as is wearing those hi-viz bibs at all times on the road. If you want to know of the pick-up point for collecting the fliers contact us here, we will get back to you. Establishing a credible hypothesis (explaining the thinking concerning our demand for a Public Inquiry above) For those of you who have been following our campaigning by way our FOI‘s and questioning of WCC, in an attempt to establish the real motive behind this most vile of taxes, you will have seen our probing into the consortium of Local Authorities spearheaded by WCC called Partnerships-In-Parking (PIP). Our research has revealed that this consortium, whose mere formation was funded by the UK Taxpayer via the Department for Communities & Local Government’s (DCLG) genuine initiative to promote cross-Authority procurement to help achieve savings by bulk-buying (for want of a better expression), and WCC’s exploiting it to the max by charging of £675k just for one bloke to formulate the "Partnership Agreement", is being used by its architects, Mssrs Alastair Gilchrist, Kevin Goad & Danny Chalkley to illegitimately encourage as many other Local Authorities to adopt the Verrus Pay-by-Phone system by offering the prospect of tender-process avoidance as a reward for joining PIP, leading us to the only logical hypothesis that it would be personally beneficial to these 3 individuals at some stage down the line. They claim to be able to implement this blatant anti-competition initiative by declaring the original contract given by WCC (under questionable circumstances) to Verrus as a UK-wide framework Agreement open to "any local authority with parking functions". Whilst frameworks generally are a list of approved "economic operators", the concept of a "single-economic-operator" (in this case Verrus) framework is acceptable as is the concept of multi-purchasers (in this case PIP Members). However, to ensure transparency & protect competition, the EU Directive clearly states that all potential "purchasers" must be explicitly identified at the time of signing the framework agreement for which the term "any LA with a parking function" would be deemed at best "not in keeping with the spirit of the law", and that it must not be longer than a 4-year contract, which the 5-year (and ability to extend) given to Verrus violates. On a separate, and far more potentially damaging tact, all procurement contracts issued by authorities such as WCC (albeit on behalf of the non-incorporated PIP) are bound by the Local Government Act 2000. Point 2 of this Act permits the issuing of contracts to the private sector for what are described as "Well-being Objectives" ie the improvement or sustainability of the local environment. However, at point 3 of the Act, it clearly states that these contracts cannot be issued with the sole purpose of raising money, which the Verrus contract blatantly violates. In short, the LA can charge us bikes to park (under the Road Traffic Regulations) but cannot give out contracts to the private sector to collect the dosh! More information including maps, route details, meeting points and promotional material for collection to follow shortly. Thanks again for your support, Warren Djanogly and the No To the Bike Parking Tax Commmittee (Who are we?) | 
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Well, that was the plan, and with his puppet Councillor Danny Chakley, ready to sign where required, and the oh-so-easily-coerced Built Environment Scrutiny Committee so eager to lap up his silver-tongue phoney justifications, he may well have got away with it were it not for his greed into trying ensnare bikers and scooterists.
Both the fliers & posters should be arriving from the printers next Monday (16th Nov), so we would urge as many of you to contact 
Also, this week has seen 2 very encouraging articles from others supporting our campaign. Firstly, there was the extensive article in (Motorcycle Sport & Leisure) MSL written by ex-Committee man, Dr Leon Mannings, 
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