No To the Bike Parking Tax

In thi email:

• Invitation to resident’ meeting.

Hello to Westminster Residents against the Motorcycle and Scooter Parking Tax.

If you want to help to defeat Westminster’s Motorcycle Parking Tax, then I hope you can spare a moment or two to read through, below.

My name is Martin, and like you, I am a Westminster *Resident* who has been campaigning against Westminster City Council’s Motorcycle Parking Tax (aka "Chalkley’s Tax"). I have recently been invited to join the "No To Bike Parking Tax" Committee, as an additional "Resident" representative, with the aim of trying to galvanise the support from the local Residents (and Retailers) against this Tax, and, from our position as Electors in Westminster, help ramp up pressure on WCC to scrap the Tax.

A quick bit about me, first. I live in the "West End" Ward of Westminster. Along with my wife, we have been active in the NTBPT campaign since the start, beginning with visiting our local Ward Councillors (with little effect) when the Notices first appeared next to M/C bays just 2 weeks before the charging started (in Zone G). We also started up a Petition, calling for "sufficient & secure parking for motorcycles for free", later in 2008, which was formally presented to the Council in January 2009, and was "considered" as part of the Objection process. My wife rides a small scooter, which she uses to get to / from work, and, whilst I am not a motorcycle rider myself, I fervently believe that Chalkley’s Tax needs to be defeated, and have spent many hours flyering bikes, and attending the Demos – mostly on my bicycle – you may have spotted me and my "bike" on the Demos, or had one of my flyers attached to your bike!?

I think it is disgraceful that the Council has tried to disguise a blatant revenue raising scheme with all its spin and misinformation. That they have (so far) taken about £3 Million from the pockets of motorcyclists, for actual parking increases which cost around £23,000 is a scandal, when motorcycles help to reduce congestion & harmful CO2 emissions.

So…

What can YOU do to help? Firstly, attend the Demos against the Tax!

See you on "Loopy Tuesday" – Tuesday 9th June as already advertised!! Go to the campaign website for full details.

However, as Westminster Council seem to think that this is primarily a campaign by commuters from outside of Westminster, hopefully we can also show them that there is strong feeling against the Tax from their own Residents, Residents’ Associations and local Retailers.

The NTBPT Committee and I do not pretend to have all of the ideas to combat this Tax, so although I/we have some thoughts, we would very much like to hear from YOU, with YOUR ideas for the campaign, YOUR suggestions for action (within the law), etc! What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong?

Invitation to residents’ meeting. PLEASE RSVP.

To this end, I would like to invite you to write to me with your thoughts and ideas, and I would also like to arrange some Meetings for us to get together, to get to know each other, to work out ways in which we can help to beat this Tax, and will also be an opportunity for you to find out what else is happening. To get the ball rolling, you are hereby invited to:

Residents’ Meeting : Wednesday 3rd June at 6:30pm at:

One Alfred Place
1 Alfred Place
London WC1E [MAP]

My contact details : martin@notobikeparkingfees.com you can reply direct to this email to contact me.

Given that there were some 150+ official Objections (plus others who signed up to the Petition), there are probably many Residents in each of Westminster’s 20 Wards who are already involved in this campaign. Perhaps we can get like-minded who live near each other, in the same Wards, to spearhead a more local campaign – to generate your own local Petitions, to raise your concerns with you local Ward Councillors, to contact local Residents’ Associations and Retailers. Maybe you see other scooters and motorcycles locally, and have always wondered whether they, too, were active in supporting this campaign? Etc.

So .. please try to make it along to the Residents Meeting (see above), and I would also love to hear from ALL of you – let me know who you are, which WARD (if you’re not sure, then plug your postcode in on the Westminster Council website, to find out), whether you have a Residents’ Parking Permit for your bike(s), whether you’ve been getting PCNs (Parking Tickets), other problems, etc., etc?

Together, we CAN help to defeat Chalkley’s Tax, to once again make Motorcycle Parking a free Council service, as it has always been, and not just a money-spinning exercise for a greedy Council.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Johnson, Westminster Resident and NTBPT Committee