"I never knowingly undercharge" - Councillor Brian Coleman

 

When Mr Mustard was 18 and moved to the big city from the country his parents warned him about about all sorts of dangers that lurked in the capital including the sharp suited spivs who played the 3 card trick in Oxford St. It is very impressive how one can never catch the odd card ( having watched at a safe distance ) unless you are the stooge of course.

His parents didn't warn him that another danger lurked away from the centre of the city; that of having his pocket picked by the local Council simply in order to leave his carriage in the street or to receive visitors. In this case the Council are trying to make out that black is white in order to try and justify the increases the infamous Cllr Coleman said, on the BBC ( hard to deny afterwards ) that the proposed increases were "in line with other London Boroughs".

[ My friends at Barnet CPZ action have already blogged on this subject and written to the Chief Executive and you can look at their comprehensive assessment here.

http://barnetcpz.blogspot.com/

Please pop over their and also donate to the cause if you can. Mr Mustard has already added his contribution to the pot. ]

A reasonable person would think that "in line with" means "more or less the same as". Well of course firstly the point of parking charges is to regulate traffic flow and not to raise revenue. In Westminster there is a high density of buildings, little spare space and lots of commercial activity which creates congestion and huge demand for parking that is most certainly not the case in green and leafy Barnet. Indeed this description comes from the OneBarnet jobs micro website

We are a desirable leafy suburb with over 200 parks, 36,000 street trees and 36% undeveloped land.

So there is lots of space and not the same level of commerce and therefore the level of parking charges should be lower as there is less demand.

Looking at the map of the London Boroughs the ones that are similarly located on the edge of north London are from Hillingon to Havering ( + Hertsmere ) and their main charges are as follows.

	Hillingdon	Harrow	Enfield	Waltham Forest	Redbridge	Havering	Hertsmere	Barnet
Car1	nil	£46	£30-£70	£30	£56	£20	£15	£100
Car2	£40	£56		£90	£78	£78		£125
Car3		£77		£150	£100	£100		£150
Visitor - min	50p	£1.02	50p	47p	56p	£1	£30	£4
max		£1.53	£1	£1.50			p.a.	£4

Barnet ( proposed, subject to judicial review )

Car1 £100 per annum

Car2 £125

Car3 £150

Visitors £4 per visit/day

Hillingdon ( Mr Mustard might have to move there - a Borough where they know the meaning of "Putting the Community First" )

Car1 £free

Car2 £40

Visitors 50p ( first 10 free )

Harrow 

Car1 £46

Car2 £56

Car3 £77

Visitors from £1.02 to £1.53 ( 50% discount for senior citizens )

Enfield

Car £30 to £70 depending on duration of zone

Visitors 50p or £1

Waltham Forest ( 900cc to 3,000cc )

Car1 £30

Car2 £90

Car3 £150

Visitors 47p to £1.50 ( 1hr to 5hrs)

Redbridge

Car1 £55.75

Car2 £78

Car3 £100

Visitors 56p

Havering

Car1 £20

Car2 £78

Car3 £100

Visitors £1

Hertsmere 

Car1 £15

Visitors £30 for the year

So for a one or two car household, which probably covers 98% of them, Barnet are the highest charge in every case. As to Visitors it is just daylight robbery. The only line that the charges of other Boroughs are in line with is a zig-zag.

Occasionally Mr Mustard makes a mistake in his life. What he then does is he apologises and tries to behave better in the future and then he feels much better about things. 

Its up to you Mr Coleman to lead by example and bring your colleagues with you. Please scrap EasyCouncil / OneBarnet / FutureShape ( or whatever it is called today ) and let us have Honest Commonsense Council ( and a little apology for what you said about parking charges being "in-line" - it really won't hurt you know, and I think you will be respected for it ).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard