Drivers on the warpath
Wood and Vale News
editorial@hamhigh.co.uk
06 January 2006
by Andy Tristem
ANGRY motorists have slammed a new system of £100 fines for motorists caught breaking rules.
Westminster Council started handing out the fines to motorists spotted ignoring road signs, blocking box junctions and misusing bus lanes on Tuesday.
Drivers have condemned the move as a new tax on motorists aimed at plugging the council's plummeting parking revenues.
Vaughan Smith, who commutes from East Anglia to run the Frontline Club in Paddington each day, said: "This will make my life miserable. It's not as if we have a transport system to offer the car user an alternative. It's just bad government. They should not be handing out fines in this way."
Police gave local authorities the power to fine motorists for the driving misdemeanours in November.
Motoring campaigner Barry Segal, owner of appealnow.com, which fights unfair parking fines, said: "I am concerned that single-frame photos will be used to show motorists inside a box junction when the reality is they are driving through.
"It also worries me that councils will change the parameters for handing out the fines to meet revenue targets. They will send out the fines and wait to see which idiots pay up."
Westminster Labour leader Paul Dimoldenberg claims the council has been forced into using the fines after a U-turn in its traffic ticketing policy last year.
The council scrapped a system that rewarded the wardens who handed out most tickets. Ticketing revenue has dropped by 30 per cent in the last six months.
Councillor Dimoldenberg said: "Westminster is desperate to find any way of raising money and as in the past, motorists are seen by the council as fair game."
Having bungled the parking income calculation, which has resulted in a £12million hole in the parking finances, it looks as if Westminster City Council is trying to make up the gap with these fines.
"At the start of the year they calculated that their draconian ticketing and clamping policy would raise a huge amount of money but because of the outcry from angry motorists they were forced to do a U-turn."
Westminster parking chief Alastair Gilchrist said the borough is using 21 fixed cameras at motoring trouble spots linked to three CCTV screens.
He estimates that 40,000 tickets will be handed out in the first year but the £1.1million scheme will not break even until 2007.
A council spokesman added: "This is absolutely not a revenue raising measure. It is about changing the behaviour of motorists who behave illegally and cause dangerous situations. The scheme will take 12 months to break even and then all the money will be put back into transport."
John Falding, chairman of the St Marylebone Society, said: "It would be nice to have traffic wardens who police traffic flow rather than act as council tax collectors."
editorial@hamhigh.co.uk
06 January 2006
by Andy Tristem
ANGRY motorists have slammed a new system of £100 fines for motorists caught breaking rules.
Westminster Council started handing out the fines to motorists spotted ignoring road signs, blocking box junctions and misusing bus lanes on Tuesday.
Drivers have condemned the move as a new tax on motorists aimed at plugging the council's plummeting parking revenues.
Vaughan Smith, who commutes from East Anglia to run the Frontline Club in Paddington each day, said: "This will make my life miserable. It's not as if we have a transport system to offer the car user an alternative. It's just bad government. They should not be handing out fines in this way."
Police gave local authorities the power to fine motorists for the driving misdemeanours in November.
Motoring campaigner Barry Segal, owner of appealnow.com, which fights unfair parking fines, said: "I am concerned that single-frame photos will be used to show motorists inside a box junction when the reality is they are driving through.
"It also worries me that councils will change the parameters for handing out the fines to meet revenue targets. They will send out the fines and wait to see which idiots pay up."
Westminster Labour leader Paul Dimoldenberg claims the council has been forced into using the fines after a U-turn in its traffic ticketing policy last year.
The council scrapped a system that rewarded the wardens who handed out most tickets. Ticketing revenue has dropped by 30 per cent in the last six months.
Councillor Dimoldenberg said: "Westminster is desperate to find any way of raising money and as in the past, motorists are seen by the council as fair game."
Having bungled the parking income calculation, which has resulted in a £12million hole in the parking finances, it looks as if Westminster City Council is trying to make up the gap with these fines.
"At the start of the year they calculated that their draconian ticketing and clamping policy would raise a huge amount of money but because of the outcry from angry motorists they were forced to do a U-turn."
Westminster parking chief Alastair Gilchrist said the borough is using 21 fixed cameras at motoring trouble spots linked to three CCTV screens.
He estimates that 40,000 tickets will be handed out in the first year but the £1.1million scheme will not break even until 2007.
A council spokesman added: "This is absolutely not a revenue raising measure. It is about changing the behaviour of motorists who behave illegally and cause dangerous situations. The scheme will take 12 months to break even and then all the money will be put back into transport."
John Falding, chairman of the St Marylebone Society, said: "It would be nice to have traffic wardens who police traffic flow rather than act as council tax collectors."
posted by Neil Herron at 12:05 PM
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