Motorcyclists will be charged for on-street parking in central London from 25th January, it has been announced.Westminster City Council are pressing ahead with the controversial initiative, despite the uproar the charge has caused among bikers both in London and nationwide.Last week, London bikers took action by defacing many of the Council's parking bay signs, rendering the parking charge unenforceable. Westminster confirmed parking signs have been vandalised in protest at the charge, causing £66,000 worth of damage since trials begun last August.The council says it will prosecute anyone found vandalising council property and say they have increased surveillance on parking signs. One of the key figures behind Westminster's initiative, Councillor Danny Chalkley met with the Chairman of the No to Bike Parking Taxes campaign, Mr Warren Djanogly. In the meeting it is reported Councillor Chalkley said: “If it wasn’t for your (No To Bike Parking Taxes) public protests I could have quietly scrapped the motorcycle parking charges, but I am under pressure from my colleagues to make it permanent."                                                                                                                                                                               

  What an admission to make, that he's making decisions based on the pressure his colleagues are giving him.    disgraceful!                                                                                                                                                                              

Sounds as if he's inferring that the public protests have prevented him from dropping the plans and that he could have quietly dropped them if the protests hadn't happened.   Hardly likely considering he was "One of the key figures behind Westminster's initiative"   ..and it would have meant trusting the word of a councillor....                                                                                                                                                                             

You can just picture it eh?

Wringing his hands, brow furrowed in genuine concern *ahem*... "Well you must appreciate my position. If you hadn't drawn attention to it like this, I could've easily withdrawn the proposals, but obviously the council can't back down now, can it?"

Smells like stuff to make your grass grow green to me
                                                                                                                                                                             

so how are they going to impose this measure ?  Anyone can walk along and rip a sticker off a bike......                                                                                                                                                                             

I suspect it'll be a "pay by text" system with number plate recognition cameras. Deep joy!

They're removing a lot of the cash meters down here - no more pay & display - you basically buy parking credits by credit card or text message. You're stuffed if you have neither!

All done by electronic means, including enforcement with their all-singing, all-dancing camera technology, therefore freeing up the meter maids to ticket the back streets, miles from anywhere, where there's no residents parking available so we all have to park illegally or walk 5 miles back home after finding somewhere legal to dump our motors overnight

                                                                                                                                                                             

Pokes head up out of tunnel...... hi Lou !!  Oh damn, I'm going in the wrong direction     Joy, rapture, not.   And what happens if theres a massive power cut in the capital when I stick my spade through the power cables ? well, other than fried squirrel......                                                                                                                                                                             

Nooooooo! Don't do it - Squirrels are a protected species!                                                                                                                                                                                

*raises spade and..........................*                                                                                                                                                                               

saved by the rubber soles on my Cats   anyway I'm still lost.....                                                                                                                                                                             

wow this guy is insane!  He's basically saying that even though there's public outrage he still can't do what's right and what the people want because his colleagues wont let him!   Don't we put these people in power to represent us?  Or am i mistaken? lol                                                                                                                                                                             

The colleagues bit is just a get-out clause - he doesn't want to back down himself, but it's easier to say "My hands are tied. It's not MY fault the council won't let me cancel this proposal" and he then thinks he doesn't bear any responsibility.

When it's "bikers" that are outraged, that rarely counts in wider society as "public outrage" or even "public opinion", because bikers are in the minority.

They will play on this and get the residents on their side, supporting the bike parking charges because their council tax bills will have to pay the cost of repairing any vandalised signage etc. The council will feel that to back down on this, means they've given in to "vandals"... Not that they've considered the ramifications and reached the sensible decision to cancel the idea.

Direct action is all well and good, but it tends to backfire when such action results in criminal damage, which is how they will view defacing parking bay signs etc.

so because we are classed as a bicycle does that mean that actual bicycles will be charged to park in town then, they take up lots of room and they don't pay so should we not be able to push our bikes to a bicycle stand in town and lock it to the stands the same as a cyclist does???????????????

Sounds like a plan to me!                                                                                                                                                                               

Unfortunately vandalising a few signs will achieve little or nothing.   If this were France, they'd have brought the capital to a standstill, until someone took some notice.                                                                                                                                                                             

£66,000 of damage? Thats really going to help  the cause.                                                                                                                                                                             

  Prezactly!                                                                                                                                                                             

Revolution.....burn them...burn them all.......what a shame this isn't France.                                                                                                                                                                               

*£66,000 of damage? Thats really going to help  the cause.*

Must have been quite a few signs damaged at a fiver each eh!                                                                                                                                                                             

  You'd be amazed how much signs cost. I remember about 11years ago when the local neighbourhood watch was starting up in the street, that I lived in at the time, that the cost for one small sign that said 'Neighbourhood Watch' was about £100 if I remember correctly. We all chipped in. I dread to think what larger signs will cost and at today's prices.