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Bikers' bid to prevent £1 Westminster parking fee crashes in High Court
David Williams, Motoring Correspondent16 Jul 2010
Westminster council today won a landmark legal battle over charging motorcyclists to park in the street.
The High Court dismissed a parking campaigner's attempt to prevent officials levying a £1-a-day fee.
A judge rejected claims by Warren Djanogly, of No To Motorbike Parking Fees, that the authority introduced it simply to raise revenue. He also turned down claims the council did not conduct a full consultation before bringing in the charge, now operational across the borough.
The ruling may have wide-reaching implications, with other boroughs now also likely to consider charging motorcyclists to park.
Lord Justice Pitchford, sitting with Mr Justice Maddison, said the council had "perfectly legitimate objectives" in bringing in the fee to help regulate traffic. He added: "While there were traffic management and environmental arguments for and against treating motorcycles as a special case, it does not seem ... the council acted outside its powers by resolving that all road users should pay their fair share for on-street provision of spaces."
He said the charge was introduced "to improve on-street parking availability for motorcyclists in order to meet actual and anticipated increased demand. The existence of that need cannot be seriously challenged. The evidence was overwhelming."
The judge said the influx of motorcyclists into Westminster following the start of the congestion charge in 2003 demonstrated "the continuing need for measures of "restraint", which was the basis for the auth- ority's policy in the first place."
Westminster said it would seek to recover its legal costs of £50,000.
Over the past year the campaign group has held weekly demonstrations in Westminster, with "go-slow" rides in and around Trafalgar Square in the morning and evening rush hours to "paralyse" central London and turn the spotlight on their campaign. Motorcyclists have also taken their protests to the entrance of Westminster City Hall in Victoria.
Lee Rowley, Westminster's cabinet member for parking and transportation, said: "Our decision to charge motorcyclists £1 per day to park has been rigorously scrutinised, open to widespread public debate and has now been tested in the High Court.
"We have always maintained that with huge demand for on-street space here, charging motorcyclists a small sum to park was fair and I'm glad the judge has reiterated this.
"This is not about the council versus motorcyclists, who we see as an important part of central London's transport mix. We were one of the UK's first local authorities to permit motorcycles in bus lanes and we will always want to work with the motorcycling community."
Motorcyclists are charged to use any dedicated on-street bay. The council says it will hold the charge at £1 a day for three years. Riders can park free in its car parks.
Reader views (15)
I think non-motorcyclists need to understand the difference between what we bikers are being told to pay for compared to them.
I park in Drury Lane in a bike bay which is about 3 car spaces long, this is regularly jammed full of nigh on 40 bkes and mopeds except that in reality there is room for about 30. When its time for me to go home after work I often have to move mopeds that have squeezed into gaps before I can even start and mount my bike. My bike now has myriads of scratches and minor damage caused by clumsy moped riders and I have to re-set my mirrors probably twice a week.
Yet you all think that I should now be happy to pay for the priviledge, come on think about if that was happening to your car?
- Mike Martin, Bexley, Kent, 17/07/2010 13:38
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So, they are going to seek to recover the legal costs.
What about the loss to the taxpayer that WCC claim that the motorcycle tax is costing them?
Their own published figures state losses of £430,000.
It would therefore be more cost-effective to have scrapped the tax.
Then they wouldn't have spent £50k defending themselves. And, by the quality of the representation at the hearing, I reckon they were WELL ripped off!
Westminster tax payers should demand restitution.
If any of the figures are to be believed of course...
- Bandit, Londonistan, 16/07/2010 20:02
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You bikers keep getting warned,Parking Space, Insurance, Special Clothes,Bike Registration its all going to be compulsory as soon as they have you hooked on the bike,be warned.
- Davey_Buoy, Chertsey, 16/07/2010 18:55
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The bike parks are so crowded that often bikes get shifted off the end of a bay and then they get a ticket.
Given the massive number of PCNs overturned on appeal, we should be compensated for the inconvenience if they turn out to be illegal. That would discourage wholesale illegal ticketing, the amount of the fine would be fair recompense for the hassle. As it is, even when whole schemes have been found to be illegal, they haven't even had to pay the money back. That's criminal! Why are they allowed to get away with it? All motorists should be doing what the bikers are doing. It has little to do with traffic management and all to do with money, parking is BIG business.
The court case is only the start of a very big battle.
- Bruce, London, 16/07/2010 18:37
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If we're only paying 1/32 of what a car driver is charged to park, why is the penalty for non-payment the SAME AS A CAR ?
Could it be because THAT is where Westminster council makes its money ? In which case, regulating the influx of motorcycles and scooters has got nothing to do with it, if it was why did Westminster council install more parking bays in the first place!???!
- Captain Rathbone, Soho London, 16/07/2010 17:37
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Mr Rowley added: "I want to make clear that this is not about the council versus motorcyclists who we see as an important part of central London's transport mix.
This is WCC-speak for 'we see motorcyclists as an important new cash cow who we force to use a socially-exclusive payment system designed for cars in order to generate revenue to cover the £20 million black hole in our finances, resulting from our gross financial mismanagement'.
No other council charges motorcyclists in this way. How is this NOT anti-motorcycling??
Even at face value, the statement refers to the transport 'mix' rightly implying that we are different. Yet they tax us like cars, but they don't like it when we behave like cars!
Furthermore it has NOTHING to do with regulating traffic, despite the Wastemonster spin machine.
It's all about the money.
We know it. WCC know it. It seems that only the judiciary cannot see the real motive...
- Bandit, Londonistan, 16/07/2010 17:13
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James - why does ANYONE have to pay for parking?
You pay road fund, there is VAT on purchase/servicing/repairs to your vehicle, we have outragous charges on fuel - then when you have the nerve to park your vehicle you get charged again
Car and van drivers may be happy to bend over and take it, bikers aren't, hence the campaign
- MonkeyBoy, Bracknell, 16/07/2010 16:57
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This is a retrograde step. London desperately needs to encourage powered two wheelers to help address the congestion issue. This charge will not help, especially when Westminster increase it, as I suspect they will.
- Simon Carswell, London, UK, 16/07/2010 16:50
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"to improve on-street parking availability for motorcyclists" hahaha, oh how I laughed at that bit - what has improved? The signs haven't made it any better, the removal of some bays hasn't made it any better, having to stand at the side of the road reading out my credit card details in the rain hasn't made it any better - unless of course I have an out of date dictionary and "better" now means "worse and get charged for no service"!
- MonkeyBoy, Bracknell, 16/07/2010 16:44
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@James Murphy who said "please explain why motorcylists should be exempt from parking fees?"
We shouldn't - however if you pay to park your car then you get a car sized space - this allows you to park, get ina and out of your car and expect no damage to occur.
The same is not true of the motorbike spaces where you will be jammed against scooters and your bike has a high likelyhood of damage.
If proper spaces were provided I, for one, would not object to paying.....
Dom
- Dom Forrest, London, 16/07/2010 16:02
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If you had a set space for your £1 paid it wouldn't be too bad but your all squeezed into a space and its a nightmare to get on or off your bike. There is no security for bikes like was promised when this charge was first talked about in Westminster. Would a car driver be happy paying for a space where the car next to theirs was touching and the only way to get into your car was through the window as there was no room to open the door? I think not yet that is what Westminster expect bike riders to pay for!
- Neil Burrows, London, 16/07/2010 15:26
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Just you wait, they'll be charging to lock up your bicycle next, just like they charge you to pee in a public loo.
And the parking charges until midnight.
- Paul, London, 16/07/2010 14:16
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please explain why motorcylists should be exempt from parking fees? they are a motor vehicle and licensed accordingly--so why shouldn't they be subject to same rules as cars?
- james murphy, london,, 16/07/2010 12:54
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As a scooter rider it's a 20 min ride from my home into Westminster if I need to meet clients at a property and a 20 min ride round to find a bike parking space then you have the nightmare of paying for parking on the mobile or by text, even when you find a space you know the bikes are packed in so close to each other that park a few times and your bike will get damaged.
It's a total nightmare, I work in London and Berlin Westminster need to go to some other European Cities to see how to deal with motorbike and cycle parking, but they are only interested in income, not sure who said it but legal and right are not always the same man, so true in Westminster's case.
If they gave value for the £1 it would not be so bad but that's one of the main problems, they don't, can't see bikers giving up on this one.
John Aitken
- John Aitken, Fulham London, 16/07/2010 12:03
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They dont mention that they have sold their carparks and have only put down plans to keep them free for a year... which means by the end of 2011 we will be paying for on and offstreet as Westminster City Council will own none of the WCC carparks and the onstreet spaces will still be just as cramped and lack the security devices they promised us 2 years ago!
- Jorel, London, 16/07/2010 12:03
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