On-street parking charges get National Press airing….

An article by walton-site-admin    Comments Off

This is an exact copy of a letter written to Honest John in the Motoring section of the Telegraph newspaper Saturday 25th June 2011.

Beans mean fines

At a recent party, I became trapped in a corner by a sozzled council officer. The more the guy drank, the more he spilt the beans. His council contracts out its parking and enforcement matters to a third party. The contractor guarantees to collect a minimum number of parking fines and, if it fails to live up to that promise, it will be subject to financial penalties. The contractor has an incentive to issue as many fines as it can, so the poor old motorist is well and truly targeted. This is getting out of hand and councils have to be brought to book.

LD Weybridge

Weybridge eh? That’s Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond’s constituency, where 26,304 residents signed an online petition against the imposition of on-street parking charges……and Surrey County Council completely ignored them. The council argues that because the existing enforcement system loses £500,000 a year, it needs to recover that through income.

So why not sack the parking enforcers?

Honest John

We have written to the Chief Executive of Elmbridge Borough Council asking for a comment on the possibility of the aforementioned officer working for Elmbridge Council.

We have also asked if there any incentive schemes in operation with the parking enforcement contractors.

We will publish the answers on this website when they become available.