Back in December we included a post No To Parking Fees which told how Westminster Council has taken it upon themselves to start charging bikers a stealth tax in the form of parking fees, when no fees for motorcycles had previously been charged.
The smarmy councillors of Westminster barely listened to campaigners before refusing to budge at an arranged meeting followed on TV. These idiots believe that they have won the day, but there is more to come.
This is an excerpt from the campaigners No To The Bike Parking Tax website:
There are only two ways to legitimately quash a Local Government scheme such as this. By Act of Parliament, or via the High Court. Cllr Chalkley’s decision to make the scheme permanent has opened a window for us to launch a full legal challenge via Judicial Review, for which we have to raise a minimum of £50,000 due to the need for a highly competent Public Law specialist legal team.
The alternative of doing nothing, as many of you already are aware, is that a host of other less-financially well-off as Westminster, will start to sign up to a version of the scheme. Our supporters the Tax Payers Alliance have calculated that, if they roll this bike tax out nationally, the motorcycle community will be laying out a staggering £93,000,000 per annum…
You can read the full post and get involved with the fight against bike tax here.
2 comments so far
1 Thierry // Aug 11, 2009 at 12:11 am
this bike parking tax should have never been allowed. I hope bikers are not going to be pushed around once again.
We must revolt against such an anti bike piece of legislation, unite, and fight this levy with all our strength.
Westminster is just the start, if we stop them now the nation of bikers will be saved from these money grabbing bureaucrates.
2 UKFRANCE // Aug 15, 2009 at 7:40 am
We can’t believe that a local Council such as Westminster doesn’t recognise the many benefits that motorbikes and scooters bring to the environment, including reduced road congestion and air pollution. All what Westminster Council seem to be interested in is grabbing money. They don’t provide a service, as if they were, there would be new features and benefits added to the parking bays, compared with when their use was free of charge up to 12 months ago. So frankly, what are Westminster Council charging motorcyclists for? It’s not because it is possible to charge motorcyclists with the use of the pay by phone technology that it is a reason to charge them. Many things can be done, but with a little bit of common sense, one can realise that everything that can be done is not worth doing.