APPENDIX 24
Memorandum submitted by Mr Mike Lewis
I understand you are prepared to receive comments
about current policies for enforcing parking restrictions and
I would like to make the following observations.
In 2005, it should be possible for all "pay
and display" and "pay on exit" machines to accept
notes, coins, and credit/debit cards, give change and provide
a receipt.
Clearways should be enforced more strictly,
employing tow away methods if necessary. However, storage and
penalty charges should be set nationally and strictly monitored.
Private clamping firms should be outlawed—no-one
should have the right to disable a vehicle other than the police,
local authorities and DVLA—and then only for breaking the
law, not for trespassing.
It must be made easier for drivers to pay any
proposed fees for parking and the "scratch card" is
particularly unhelpful. I recently spent twenty fruitless minutes
searching for a shop which sold such a card in a city I was visiting
for the first and last time. In the end I gave up and parked illegally
for a further five minutes whilst I ran into the shop to collect
my goods!
Above all else, the infatuation with making
on street parking difficult should be relaxed. Of course there
are many instances where parking should not be allowed on the
basis it would cause congestion—but equally I could take
you to many streets where parking could be allowed without problem,
especially on wide streets—but double yellow lines currently
prevent it. This has led in many areas to the demise of city centres
and local towns—to the benefit of out of town shopping parks.
4 September 2005
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