Dear <<First Name>>,

FIRST THINGS FIRST! We must apologise that this message has gone out twice, this was due to our mail server getting frisky late last night and a pipe got blocked somewhere under the atlantic.. and it was too busy to send to more than half of our mailing list! Unfortunately we cannot see who the message got through to, so we call this Newsletter #108b, "b" means that the mail server has recovered from its hangover and has been slapped back in to shape and its clothes are back on. So here goes.. please enjoy the latest campaign incarnation.

Back to business..

We would like to ask you to check your mailing list details here, we are having a spring clean and would like to make sure that all your details are correct.

Aside from that, we have made some stylistic updates to the campaign website and an even style updates to the campaign forum plus instead of bombarding people twice with news on Facebook we have decided to set up one page on Facebook, for those of you that use Facebook and want to be kept informed that way please become a fan of our page at http://www.facebook.com/ntbpt.

Now down to business! Read on for the latest campaign developments.

With our campaign (assured by WCC Officers to WCC Councillors that it would peter out very quickly) We are happy to report that it goes from strength to strength, and we await confirmation from the High Court as to a possible hearing date (For newer campaign supporters, more information on the High Court case is here).

However, we do need to get those donations rolling in again. We need another £15k and I am sure you will agree, the trade needs to be approach more by you guys.

Please send your £10 (or more) by using our secure online form for donations
or
by bank transfer to Sort Code 40-02-35 – A/C 11411047 – Ref "YOUR NAME".

To avoid any confusion, ALL DONATIONS are used purely for LEGAL PURPOSES only and you can see that we have and always will have a live running total of the donations to date published on our campaign website with full list of donators. All committee members’ and supplier expenses are met from our own pockets!! However, it is only crucial to realise that our Chairman has deliberately taken the case in his own name to ensure that no adverse costs orders (in the highly-unlikely event that a Court believes the WCC spin doctors!!) can be enforced against any other campaigner!! In light of this, surely your £10 against his own personal financial risk is small fry!!.

Our new format of direct action by way of flash "gatherings" at secret locations resulting in the traffic chaos so "unimaginably" capable from mere two-wheelers has seen as huge rise in interest from a plethora of people, many simply relieved that some group is prepared to stand up for what so many feel are blatant self-serving & unjust practices of those employed in positions of trust to protect our environments & communities.

Whilst we would love to assist all the various groups with their own individual gripes against a regime at WCC rapidly becoming exposed as making Dame Shirley Porter look amateurish, we simply must concentrate on what we do, which has won us many plaudits, keep the fight going!

The WMBC (Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club)

With the next meeting planned for this Wednesday, 24th March (register for SMS alert here), it is important for you all to realise that these are nothing more than publicity stunts to "publicise" our messages of:-

"treat us like cars, and we’ll act like cars. Scrap the tax or the taxmakers".

For those of you who don’t know, the rationale behind this mantra is that, as a direct result of our campaigning, WCC have been forced to re-visit all their phoney justifications for what is a blatant revenue-raising (and thus illegitmate) scheme. With some WCC officers telling the Press that it was never meant to be a deterrent to bikes, and then Cllr Chalkley admitting that it was a necessary "restraint" as WCC are worried about "congestion", the simple illogic of this has led to our actively seeking to cause congestion to prove the point – bikes don’t congest. We have a very well designed folding flyer ready to hand out to drivers at the gatherings who are held up, these will be given out at before the gathering to attendees, they are straight and to the point. They may look upside down, but they fold

You only have to see the utter anger & disgust emanating from car drivers when they realise that they are being held up by bikes. Furthermore, as our videos show and here, some of them are even prepared to use their vehicles in as intimidating a way as possible getting as close to riders as they can, nudging & nudging. The reality of this is that they would never act that way if the congestion was caused by a bus, or a taxi, or more importantly, one of the may trucks belonging to the 2 Freight Logistics Groups who have done deals with Cllr Chalkley to "pay the salary of the WCC Parking department manager".

…and yet these gatherings are already having a tremendous impact.

SUPPORTING THE WMBC – Say hello to the WESC!!

As so many of you find it hard, due to various commitments to make the WMBC, and others simply miss our evening demos, we are delighted to announce the inaugural meeting of the Wednesday Evening Supper Club on Wednesday 31st March – being the anniversary of our big 4,000+ demo last year, watch vid and remind yourself of that day, which we will be repeating again when the weather warms up!) – and will meet at 6pm.

To be run on the same "secret location meet-up" basis, the same being alerted by SMS an hour before, this new club will meet ONCE-A-MONTH for the foreseeable future, unless the demand for it suggests otherwise.

So, make sure you are registered, and lets really take to the streets to hammer home that message:-

"treat us like cars, and we’ll act like cars. Scrap the tax or the tax makers".

Should you wish to get more insight into what the campaign is doing, please become a member of our forum at http://forum.notobikeparkingtax.com

See you all Wednesday morning (24th March 2010) for the third meeting of WMBC, register for SMS here.

The NTBPT Committee

NEW FEATURE: Some links for light reading!

• French motorcyclists more angry than ever
• UK: Ongoing Fight To Stop Paying For Motorcycle Parking Taxes – Help Needed
• Bike parking tax latest: Truth, lies, rot and lawlessness…
• Bikers are of both sexes, n’est-ce pas mesdames et mesdemoiselles?
• French bikers take over the public transport to express their anger at the Government

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Dear *|TITLE:FIRST|*,

Before we get down to business with the latest campaign news and happenings, we would like to ask you to check your mailing list details here, we are having a spring clean and would like to make sure that all your details are correct.

Aside from that, we have made some stylistic updates to the campaign website and an even style updates to the campaign forum plus instead of bombarding people twice with news on Facebook we have decided to set up one page on Facebook, for those of you that use Facebook and want to be kept informed that way please become a fan of our page at http://www.facebook.com/ntbpt.

Now down to business! Read on for the latest campaign developments.

With our campaign (assured by WCC Officers to WCC Councillors that it would peter out very quickly) We are happy to report that it goes from strength to strength, and we await confirmation from the High Court as to a possible hearing date (For newer campaign supporters, more information on the High Court case is here).

However, we do need to get those donations rolling in again. We need another £15k and I am sure you will agree, the trade needs to be approach more by you guys.

Please send your £10 (or more) by using our secure online form for donations
or
by bank transfer to Sort Code 40-02-35 – A/C 11411047 – Ref "YOUR NAME".

To avoid any confusion, ALL DONATIONS are used purely for LEGAL PURPOSES only and you can see that we have and always will have a live running total of the donations to date published on our campaign website with full list of donators. All committee members’ and supplier expenses are met from our own pockets!! However, it is only crucial to realise that our Chairman has deliberately taken the case in his own name to ensure that no adverse costs orders (in the highly-unlikely event that a Court believes the WCC spin doctors!!) can be enforced against any other campaigner!! In light of this, surely your £10 against his own personal financial risk is small fry!!.

Our new format of direct action by way of flash "gatherings" at secret locations resulting in the traffic chaos so "unimaginably" capable from mere two-wheelers has seen as huge rise in interest from a plethora of people, many simply relieved that some group is prepared to stand up for what so many feel are blatant self-serving & unjust practices of those employed in positions of trust to protect our environments & communities.

Whilst we would love to assist all the various groups with their own individual gripes against a regime at WCC rapidly becoming exposed as making Dame Shirley Porter look amateurish, we simply must concentrate on what we do, which has won us many plaudits, keep the fight going!

The WMBC (Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club)

With the next meeting planned for this Wednesday, 24th March (register for SMS alert here), it is important for you all to realise that these are nothing more than publicity stunts to "publicise" our messages of:-

"treat us like cars, and we’ll act like cars. Scrap the tax or the taxmakers".

For those of you who don’t know, the rationale behind this mantra is that, as a direct result of our campaigning, WCC have been forced to re-visit all their phoney justifications for what is a blatant revenue-raising (and thus illegitmate) scheme. With some WCC officers telling the Press that it was never meant to be a deterrent to bikes, and then Cllr Chalkley admitting that it was a necessary "restraint" as WCC are worried about "congestion", the simple illogic of this has led to our actively seeking to cause congestion to prove the point – bikes don’t congest. We have a very well designed folding flyer ready to hand out to drivers at the gatherings who are held up, these will be given out at before the gathering to attendees, they are straight and to the point. They may look upside down, but they fold

You only have to see the utter anger & disgust emanating from car drivers when they realise that they are being held up by bikes. Furthermore, as our videos show and here, some of them are even prepared to use their vehicles in as intimidating a way as possible getting as close to riders as they can, nudging & nudging. The reality of this is that they would never act that way if the congestion was caused by a bus, or a taxi, or more importantly, one of the may trucks belonging to the 2 Freight Logistics Groups who have done deals with Cllr Chalkley to "pay the salary of the WCC Parking department manager".

…and yet these gatherings are already having a tremendous impact.

SUPPORTING THE WMBC – Say hello to the WESC!!

As so many of you find it hard, due to various commitments to make the WMBC, and others simply miss our evening demos, we are delighted to announce the inaugural meeting of the Wednesday Evening Supper Club on Wednesday 31st March – being the anniversary of our big 4,000+ demo last year, watch vid and remind yourself of that day, which we will be repeating again when the weather warms up!) – and will meet at 6pm.

To be run on the same "secret location meet-up" basis, the same being alerted by SMS an hour before, this new club will meet ONCE-A-MONTH for the foreseeable future, unless the demand for it suggests otherwise.

So, make sure you are registered, and lets really take to the streets to hammer home that message:-

"treat us like cars, and we’ll act like cars. Scrap the tax or the tax makers".

Should you wish to get more insight into what the campaign is doing, please become a member of our forum at http://forum.notobikeparkingtax.com

See you all Wednesday morning (24th March 2010) for the third meeting of WMBC, register for SMS here.

The NTBPT Committee

NEW FEATURE: Some links for light reading!

• French motorcyclists more angry than ever
• UK: Ongoing Fight To Stop Paying For Motorcycle Parking Taxes – Help Needed
• Bike parking tax latest: Truth, lies, rot and lawlessness…
• Bikers are of both sexes, n’est-ce pas mesdames et mesdemoiselles?
• French bikers take over the public transport to express their anger at the Government

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Hello <<First Name>>!

Due to a huge number of you pointing out that the last Newsletter #107 (Read it here if you have not already) did not have a link to make donations, here it is, the page has been updated to make things clearer too:-

Donate to the campaign fighting fund, click here for full details, thanks <<First Name>>.

If you are still undecided and have not read the Claim Form that was lodged at the High Court last Friday, here it is:-

Read the High Court claim that the campaign has submitted against Westminster City Council in full here

————NEWS FLASH————-

NEWS FLASH: We just had this piece of news come in from the BBC news desk.. "Westminster Council’s parking department faces EU probe" as you know… we just have to keep pushing guys, what we are doign is making progress, only together we can do it! – READ AND SHARE! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8551184.stm

And don’t forget, the next demo, to be held outside 8 Northumberland Ave (off Trafalgar Sq) on Tues, 9th March 2010, where the WCC top brass will be feasting on their ill-gotten gains, whilst showing off to the great & good.

Make sure your there to let all the guests attending the WCC Dinner know how reviled their hosts truly are in the minds of so many members of the public.

Start times for 9th March demo:

5.30pm at secret location – Register for free SMS notification here.
6.00pm outside 8 Northumberland Avenue (Just off Trafalgar Sq)

Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club (WMBC)

To start our "No More Talkling" philosophy toward remonstrating, the WMBC will have its inaugural meeting the following morning, Wed 10th March. We are sure that, given time, this will prove to be the most effective format to ensure that increasing numbers of disgruntled commuters start complaining to WCC, and demanding that WCC act.

The leaflets prepared for our guys to hand out at the "Breakfast Club" will ensure that they also will not have to do any more explaining. The message is simple:-

"You want us to stop inconveniencing you, then get WCC to stop inconveniencing us!"

See you on Tuesday evening <<First Name>> & hopefully Wednesday morning as well.

NTBPT Committee (Who are we?)

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Hello <<First Name>> – The Claim is lodged with the High Court!

At last, here it is – the Claim form (PDF), paid for by your donations, lodged at the High Court last Friday.

This not only lets Westminster City Council know, in no uncertain terms, that we mean business, but also answers the – very few – dissenters we have had that sought to pour scorn on our motives for seeking donations.

Click here for a copy – after all, you co-own it (PDF)!

Let battle commence!

Donations

Those of you with experience of such matters will fully appreciate that a document of such quality comes with a high price tag, but if we are to mount a serious challenge of legal merit, cutting corners was never an option, and of the £30k raised to date, we are left with just under £10k. To see the job through, we still need to raise at least another £20k, but I am sure you will agree that the claim form itself should act as a damn fine incentive.

Could I ask you all, even though some of you have already donated substantial sums, to not only once again reach into your pockets for another £10 to the fighting fund, but to make a concerted approach to your local motorcycle clubs, traders, service providers, or lobby groups, and show them what can be achieved when the motorcycle fraternity truly comes together again a common enemy.

Incidentally, last week we received a £100 donation from the Wycombe Branch of MAG. Whilst I know many of you have matched or exceeded that amount, the important thing is that a group of riders came together, and so to all you members of other MAG & BMF Groups, please start getting those whip-rounds going!

The next demo

The location of the next demo.

Tuesday 9th March is when the WCC snouts will be chomping through the ill-gotten gains made at our expense. They also want to flaunt it to the great & good. So if ever there could be a demonstration that we’d imagine you’d want to be at, this is it.

Because WE will be the reception that will ensure that no guest entering that hall is under any illusion as to how much revulsion is felt towards their hosts by so many of the electorate. The demo will be outside 8 Northumberland Avenue, just off Trafalgar Square (Map) starting at 6 pm, and we shall hold our own "Civic Dinner" of baked beans & pancakes (to be made on site!!).

NB – chances are the Police will create a holding area for our bikes somewhere off Northumberland Ave, so the demo will be on the pavement. Whilst it is highly tempting to do a "RATS"-style entrance blockade (Video), please co-operate if you are directed to park by the Police.

As with the last demo, many will be meeting up to ride together to Northumberland Ave. If you want an SMS message as to where various meeting points are, please register for the SMS here.

Going Forward

As I said on the forum, if there is one advantage to filing the Claim, it is that we can finally declare "from now on, no more talking!"

To explain, as a Committee, we have done all the politicking, and polite demonstrating, only for it to fall on deaf ears. Now we can leave it to the lawyers and get back to doing what we do best. As our last pre-demo meet-up showed, within 3 minutes of encircling the roundabout at the sound side of Trafalgar Sq, the whole area came to a standstill, and made our strongest statement of intent to date. You can watch the video 1 here and video 2 here. "Treat us like cars, and we’ll congest like cars"

But the truth is – for all the anger it genuinely caused – not one single person was annoyed enough to even contact us, let alone WCC. This has to change, I am afraid to say. We have to now seriously start impinging on the everyday routines of the workers & residents of WCC, and in doing so, be prepared to take the flak until such time as that flak is deflected where it should have been in the first place – at Danny Chalkley and his puppet-master, Alastair Gilchrist.

So, at the demo on March 9th, I will be seeking volunteers for the most concentrated form of demonstrating we have undertaken. Starting the following morning on 10th March 2010, the Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club will meet each week at 8am at a venue made known by SMS at 7am, to then ride to an area where a Trafalgar Square type blockage can be caused, without ever breaking a rule of the road.

Trafalgar Square brought to a standstill.

We are under no illusions that this will really start to irk a lot of people who currently support our campaign – we are also under no illusions that attendances for the first few weeks could be low – but once our fellow riders & the public at large see the effect of these demonstrations, more and more of our guys will attend, and more & more pressure will mount on WCC to do something. And, as we are not breaking any laws, the only way to stop us will be … to scrap their insidious little tax.

And with dear old Susan Burbridge rightly pointing out, at less than the cost of a coffee at Starbucks, they won’t miss it when it IS scrapped.

Scooter or biker, we are all in this together.

And when I say "no more talking", I want that to apply to all those of you who join the WMBC. So that you won’t need to explain yourself to the nearest irate motorist who feels brave enough to remonstrate, we will have generic leaflets at the ready for this telling them who at WCC they should contact if they want us to stop. They will be printed for you to hand-out, and enable you to stay schtum! It’s amazing how the site of a video camera in their face seems to make the more irate skulk back to their cars and fume therein.

NO REALLY MEANS NO! – BY CAPTAIN RATHBONE!

See on Tuesday-week, and don’t forget to sign up for your SMS alert of meeting points before the demo here

Warren & the Committee

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