20 March (Part 2) - Fines, taxes and charges. In Bexley they are all skyrocketing
Now that notices are being wrapped around lamp posts and emails are going out
to residents the complaints are coming in. Bexley Council is not just putting up
the price of Residents’ Parking Permits by 25%, for second cars the increase is 50%.
Bexley’s email claims to offer an explanation but it does not…
Dear Controlled Parking Zone Permit Holder,
Controlled Parking Zone Parking Permits – Proposed Changes and Price Increase
We are writing to advise you that at the Budget Council meeting held on 6th
March 2019 it was decided that the price of Controlled Parking Zone Parking
Permits should be increased and an “Additional Vehicle Supplement” charge be
introduced for the second and subsequent permits applied for by a household or business.
The full details of the proposed increases are available on the Council’s
Public Notices Page for 13 March 2019 using the following link:
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/sites/bexley-cms/files/2019-03/Public-Notices-13-March-2019-Part-Four.pdf
Should you require a copy of the tables that appear on the website then
please let me know and I will arrange for a copy to be sent to you.
The formal advertising of the proposed traffic management order to make this
change is currently taking place. Copies of the proposed Order, the
corresponding Parent Order (and any Orders that have amended that Order),
the Council’s statement of reasons for proposing to make the Order, can be
inspected during normal office hours on Mondays to Fridays inclusive, at the
Contact Centre, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath, Kent DA6 7AT.
If you have any comments about the proposals, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Should you wish to formally object to the proposed traffic management order
then this must be in writing or by email (bruce.woodhams@bexley.gov.uk)
and must be received by the 3 April 2019. Please note that for an
objection to be valid a full name and postal address must be included, and
that all comments may be made available for public inspection.
Yours sincerely
Bruce Woodhams
Traffic and Road Safety Services
If you click on the link that Mr. Woodhams provides you will find nothing about the “Additional Vehicle Supplement”.
The truth was buried deeply in January’s Cabinet papers and
reproduced below. From next month residents will have to pay £150 to park a
second or subsequent car instead of the £100 they pay now, £175 if you live close to a town centre.
I doubt Bexley Council will choose to justify the increase, when they tried to
justify the increase from £35 to £100 eight years ago Councillor Craske did what
he always did back then. Among the inventions was that a Councillor had consulted his ward residents and found that
residents were happy with their CPZ and the charges. A Council official admitted in a
Freedom of Information request that there had been no consultation.
Councillor Craske claimed that the administrative costs associated with every parking permit was £240 a
year. A breakdown of costs showed that could only be possible if all the white
lines were repainted annually at a cost of £6 a foot. Since then paper permits
have been replaced by digital systems, thereby lowering the admin. costs.
The new charges of up to £225 for a Parking Permit do not compare well with other boroughs.
Bromley charges either £40 or £80 a year dependent on where one lives. Greenwich charges different rates dependent on how long the restriction applies. £57 in Abbey Wood where two hour restrictions apply
and up to £100 in Blackheath where the restriction is all day. At that rate most
Bexley residents would be on £57 a year not Bexley’s extortionate £125. (Link to Greewich’s price list.)
Richmond is another Council that charges different rates for short or long
restrictions but they go further, the charges are linked to a car’s CO2
emissions. If you pay no Road Tax you don’t pay to park either. Maybe there is
some merit to having a Lib Dem Council after all.
If you own a gas guzzler in Richmond you will pay either £48·50 a year, £82·50 or £109
dependent on the length of the local restriction.
Second car owners get clobbered in town centres but not as much as in
Bexley and Richmond is less than half the price for residential streets with two hour
restrictions. Nowhere in Outer London is as punitive as Bexley. In Newham
residents have a choice of a free permit or 30 free visitors permits annually.
No one should ever fall for Bexley Conservatives’ line that they run a low tax
Council, maybe the government grant system does treat them harshly but that
doesn’t change the facts. Bexley charges more than most Councils for nearly everything.
Note: Bexley Council has corrected its link and the full scale of their
increases may be found at
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/sites/bexley-cms/files/2019-03/Public-Notices-13-March-2019-Part-Two.pdf.