MOTORCYCLE PARKING IN WESTMINSTER

WESTMINSTER MOTORCYCLE PARKING

Official statement from www.motorcycleparking.com

20th February 2009

Motorcycleparking.com have just been made aware of a statement on the Westminster Council website which claims that, along with the British Motorcycle Federation (BMF) and the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG), we too were part of the 'extensive dialogue' and 'consultation' about the introduction of the motorcycle parking charge. We would like to make it clear that our 'consultation' amounted to a handful of emails and one meeting during 2007 in which we pointed out that we felt that not enough bikers were aware of, or had been involved in Westminster Council's motorcycle parking charge research, and that charging was very much against their will. Like BMF and MAG we oppose the charge and are hopeful that Westminster Council will take heed of the No to bike parking fees campaign and abolish the charge.

Note: The sum total of what Westminster Council is claiming to be extensive dialogue and consultation was as follows:

- In January 2007 Will Beeley of www.motorcycleparking.com was invited to take part in discussions about the introduction of payment for motorcycle parking on the BBC Breakfast Show with Jason Donovan and was contacted immediately after the show by Alastair Gilchrist (Director of Parking for Westminster Council) to chat further about Will's comments on air that Westminster had not looked at alternatives to charging, such as sponsorship from local businesses and money from the government’s anti-crime funding (We have not seen any evidence to suggest that any of these alternative methods for paying for the improvements to motorcycle parking in Westminster were properly considered or researched).

- In April 2007 Motorcycleparking.com attended a meeting at the Westminster Council offices but this meeting was purely to discuss which areas needed more motorcycle parking provision. Discussions about whether the charge was valid were off-topic and off-limits!

- At the meeting we did however ask Westminster Council to provide details and the results of the surveys / research that they had carried out into payment for motorcycle parking but were informed that the data was not yet ready for publication release as they were still working on the overall strategy.

Will Beeley

Motorcycleparking.com

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Official statement from BMF and MAG against Motorcycle Parking Charges
19 February 2009

Dear Westminster Councillors,

Contrary to the inference given by your colleague, Councillor Danny Chalkley, the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) and the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) have never supported the introduction of motorcycle parking charges in the City of Westminster. In fact, we have been opposed to this measure ever since the idea was first mooted to us in late 2006 during an informal consultation. We were particularly aggrieved by the fact that we were not given an opportunity to present our case to the councillors before you made a policy decision on the issue based on false information. We have now witnessed Councillor Chalkley, on numerous occasions, stating that both MAG and BMF had been consulted on this point and thus inferring that we were in tacit agreement. I think you will find that we are clearly not, as evidenced by our strong support for the No To Bike Parking Fees Campaign, our historic campaigns against motorcycle parking charges and this letter.

As a point of interest, had you been correctly informed of the hostility of our responses to the suggestion of charging for motorcycle parking, and in particular the fact that there would be no free parking for motorcycles anywhere within the City of Westminster, you may have been suitably informed of the public opposition to the scheme. This in turn may have instructed you to adopt a different course of action. This, after all, is the point of consultation.

We hope that this letter will totally clarify both MAG and the BMF's position on paying for motorcycle parking, i.e. we are totally opposed to paying for motorcycle parking anywhere. Further to this, we are very much in favour of increasing free, secure motorcycle parking to meet demand in line with what has been achieved by other local authorities in similar positions to Westminster City Council.

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Phillpotts
BMF Greater London Regional Chairman and Director of Political and Technical Services

Gerard Livett
President of the Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations
Former MAG Greater London Regional Representative and Director of transport planning.

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Motorcycleparking.com broke the news about Westminster's plan to charge for motorcycle parking at the end of 2006 / beginning of 2007 and at the time gave details of a petition to stop the introduction of the charge. Motorcycleparking.com's owner Will Beeley spoke on the BBC Breakfast Show in January 2007 and offered Westminster alternatives to a straight forward charge (such as sponsorship of bays by local businesses as has been done in other cities) but sadly none of these were taken up and the charge was introduced August 2008.

What Westminster have done for bikers / are planning to do

Spaces

- They increased the number of on-street motorcycle parking spaces to 6100 spaces in time for the start of charging
- They have opened up all car parks to motorcyclists and put up signage to direct motorcyclists to the appropriate bays (The charge for parking in the car parks is the same as on-street).

Security
- They have just completed the installation of 50 new ground anchors in Queens Park and Bayswater (in residential areas) and will be monitoring these to see how much they are used over the next three months with a view to installing more devices in other parts of the borough if these are used enough. For more details on this trial or to give feedback on these devices please click here.

Signage
- They will be adding extra signage to bays where needed e.g. long bays have been identified as requiring signage in multiple locations. Additional to this they have been made aware that many of the public notices that were put up in July are no longer there, and have instructed that these signs be replaced.

Ease of payment
- They introduced Pay-by-phone to make it easy for bikers to pay (no need for a pay and display ticket which can blow away or be stolen). Pay-by-phone allows you to use any motorcycle parking bay throughout the borough.
· They are in the process of investigating how a discounted residents permit would work and are looking into creating a paperless permit as it is seen as more convenient. More information on this will be available in the New Year.

Feedback / Surveys
- They are in the process of commissioning an external company to carry out an on street survey of motorists which will include questions around pay by phone, security devices, and to gauge how often people park in Westminster.
- They will carry out an occupancy survey of all the motorcycle bays in the borough to see how much they are used.