Letter to the Editor: Cllr Coleman’s parking policy is ill-conceived
Dear Editor
Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson, in his newly published transport manifesto, says that “One of the biggest complaints from businesses large and small is about parking in London making it difficult for them to do their job, increasing costs, or by making it difficult for customers to get to them”. And in a recent response in Mayor’s Question Time, he said “that he is concerned when decisions over parking policy are taken without taking fully into account economic development”.
For once, I agree with him on both those propositions.
Mayor Johnson then goes on to say that he “ will call on each borough to review parking in non-residential, strategic shopping areas”. So why hasn’t he done so already, bearing in mind the damage that is being done to Barnet businesses and residents every single day of the week, since Cllr Coleman’s ill-conceived and outrageous parking charges were first introduced? Or has he done so, yet privately recognised the truth, that Cllr Coleman does not take a blind bit of notice of anything Mayor Johnson says, just as Cllr Coleman has ignored or insulted all those who disagree with him in Barnet.
The fact is, Mayor Johnson has done nothing more than shed crocodile tears for Barnet residents, traders and small businesses. Neither he nor his Conservative colleagues who run Barnet council care less, so long as they rake in our cash through their parking stealth taxes and parking fines.
The time has come to tell Cllr Coleman through the ballot box in the London elections on 3rd May, that his parking policies are rejected by local residents. If he loses his GLA seat to someone who understands and sympathises with hard pressed residents, only then might Barnet Conservatives wake up and smell the coffee.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Dismore
Labour London Assembly candidate for Barnet and Camden
