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Revenue from parking is also for the shareholders
• IN the second editorial of your latest issue (Addicted to parking fines, 8 January) you comment that either “parking fines are part of a Town Hall money-making machine… or they are legitimate means to police traffic”.
The same edition runs as its lead story, the early departure of the interim head of parking, John Meyer (Shock exit of parking fine chief, January 8).
Camden is apparently £4million down on revenue from parking fines.
Back in October last year, you reported on Mr Meyer’s appointment, seen as controversial because of a possible conflict of interest through his personal business connections.
At the time the environment director Rachel Stopard claimed that it was “good news” that fewer tickets were being issued.
Her deputy, though, was not so relaxed. He was looking for “quick wins”, presumably meaning the need to boost income from parking fines.
In the mix we have New Labour’s close friend, privatisation.
In Camden, the on-the-street traffic wardens are not council officers but employees of a private contractor, National Car Parks (NCP).
It seems a fair assumption that both NCP and Camden Council benefit financially from the issuing of parking tickets.
So instead of a sensible and rational policing of traffic regulations we have twin monetary imperatives at play, revenue for the council and profits for the private shareholders.
The New Journal’s pre-Christmas edition informed its readers about possible traffic wardens with CCTV helmets (Militias to hit streets, December 23).
Councillors are apparently considering an enhanced role for these so-called “civil enforcement officers”.
This “privatised militia” could issue fines for offences like graffiti and dog-fouling, as well as traffic infringements. This is a recipe for even more cash-grabbing ticket-hastiness.
New Labour’s ideology
sees local government ever more as just a contracting agent for private companies.
In Camden street surveillance cameras, that impinge directly on our personal privacy and freedoms in a public space, are not monitored hour-to-hour by officers from the police or council, but by staff of a Norwich-based private security firm called Broadland Guarding Services.
These individuals decide whether or not we should be observed, filmed and recorded.
There are some functions of government, local and national, that should be irreducibly public and not the business of private corporate gain.
Eric Krieger
Haverstock Road, NW5
A penalty notice at 9.31am – how keen is that?
• WHEN I read your Comment about parking fines (January 8) I immediately thought good old New Journal hitting the nail on the head as usual.
Jehovah alone knows where would we all be without you?
I moved to WC1 in 1984.
How appropriate in the circumstances of the truly oppressive, overpriced, parking enforcement regime we are forced to live under.
It is enforced by wardens, prowling around the streets just waiting to pounce on residents in their revolting coloured uniforms.
Last year I had a penalty charge notice timed at 9.31am on my motor, parked on a meter bay as residents are entitled to park until 9.30!
I opened my car door as St Pancras Church bell was chiming the half hour.
The official must have already started entering my details on his machine before the deadline. How keen is that?
This system amounts to nothing more than local taxation to which our council has, as you so rightly suggest, become addicted.
It really has nothing to do with parking control as far as I can see and makes living in Camden a rather unpleasant experience.
I won’t mention unsuspecting visitors!
Tony Tugnutt
Burton Street, WC1
Failure of the system
• THAT Camden Council is “struggling to understand why money raised from parking tickets is down by £4million” implies a somewhat corrupt system.
Is it beyond the realms of possibility that because of Camden Council’s excessive handling of parking in the borough, that fewer offences may have been committed?
It is understood that parking is now a valuable source of income to local authorities.
But this must surely be in accordance with the number of offences committed and not driven by targets.
Perhaps if the residents of Camden
can make a greater effort in the coming year with regard to minor parking infringements, this imbalance in revenue can be addressed.
Adam Brown
St Paul’s Crescent
NW1
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Your comments:
I've just read Tony Tugnutt's comment on being fined at 9:31 a.m... I happen to be one of those unsuspecting visitors he mentions (last line).
We came all the way from France to give a gig in a bar on Kentish Road.
We had but a few coins to put in the meter (oh, by the by, I tried one meter... 't never worked... I lost 2 quid). So we had to go get some more money from the Hole in the Wall, and then get some change...
When we entered Kentish Road again, we saw The Man In Green enjoying his task. We were two minutes late. "Too late" is what he just kept saying, behind a superb smile!
We've been wondering : were we late... was he a bit too early and waiting?
How can we claim these two minutes of fame immortalized by the CCTV?...
(We never had the chance to play that night... the electric circuit ran out of order!!!)
G. Zydaczewski
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