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News and Comment July 2010

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16 July - Parking permits

I see that councillor Craske is keen to persecute motorists again. He is raising the price of a resident’s parking permit from £35 to £100. The excuse is that the price of “non-core services” must be increased to cover their costs. Now I am totally sympathetic to the view that non-core services should not be subsidised by little old ladies living alone or any other taxpayer for that matter. If that means paying more for a DVD borrowed from the library or to have an old fridge taken away, then so be it, it is the price we pay for Gordon Brown’s mismanagement of the economy. But parking outside your own house isn’t even a service. The permit is a penalty charge for having the misfortune to live close to a popular amenity.

It is as often as not the council’s idea to restrict parking to residents which is not always a bad thing but how can it cost £35 a year to issue them with a piece of paper to stick on their windscreen let alone £100? The restrictions are already just a money-making scheme through extortionate parking fines. One neighbouring borough that imposes far lower taxes than Bexley - I suppose that covers all of them but this one is across the river - doesn’t charge for residents’ parking permits at all, but then they do not have the expenses king Craske to contend with. If the malicious weasel was serious about cutting costs he would make the permits valid for two years and halve the cost of administering the schemes at a stroke. But we all know that such a dramatic increase in price of a paper permit is just a cynical ploy by the nasty little runt to help finance the ever-deepening expenses trough into which he can plunge his greedy snout.

 

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