Bikers To Face Westminster In Appeal Court

March 11, 2011 - PRLog -- The No To Bike Parking Tax Campaign is to return to court to face Westminster City Council on Monday as their appeal gets underway against the imposition of a parking tax on motorcycles and scooters across the borough.



Campaign chairman Warren Djanogly said today:



'Bikers are returning to court to ensure that this reviled tax, which is clearly about extorting yet more money from road users, and nothing whatsoever to do with traffic management, is scrapped once and for all. Bikers will not allow themselves to become victims of the ever more oppressive and expensive parking enforcement regime that car drivers find themselves subjected to.'



The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Jackson went firmly against an earlier ruling by Lord Justice Pitchford that the campaign had no grounds to appeal, and ruled that 6 of the 7 original grounds could be argued. He also disagreed with Lord Pitchford on the issue of ‘reasonable grounds of success’, making clear that there was a case to answer



Councils are prohibited from using parking to raise revenue or plug holes in their finances, something which campaigners claim is the sole purpose of the bike tax, as the level of spending on improvements or expansion of bike facilities has been negligible, especially in comparison to the sums of money being raised.



In an apparent admission that councils were flouting the law, Baroness Margaret Eaton, chair of the Local Government Association, revealed how councils were using parking for exactly that purpose, stating:



'Councils don't take the decision to raise parking charges lightly, but they've just received the worst financial settlement in history.'



Charlie Lort-Phillips, of the NTBPT Campaign, added:



'Not only is this council imposing eye-wateringly high charges on car drivers, but is deliberately targeting a group of road users who ease congestion, decrease journey times, and relieve the pressure on public transport through their use of powered two-wheelers. A message has to be sent by the court that such active discouragement of a congestion busting mode of transport is not only backward, but - when so clearly unjustified by the council in question - illegal.'



The campaign was successful in halting the spread of the parking tax across London and beyond, and in addition forced a climbdown by Westminster early on by forcing a cut in the price from £150/yr to £100/yr. Some members have formed a second group - the NoToMob - which has exposed CCTV cars issuing thousands of pounds of fines to unwitting drivers due to illegal signage in the borough.








NOTES TO EDITORS:



The No To Bike Parking Tax protest group is the leading voice challenging the motorcycle charging scheme, and has enlisted the support of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Drivers’ Alliance, The British Motorcycle Federation, the Motorcycle Action Group, the AA, and thousands of bikers across the UK. Further information about the campaign can be found at www.notobikeparkingtax.com



PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PREVIOUS DEMONSTRATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE:

http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/gallery/



VIDEOS OF THE PREVIOUS DEMONSTRATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ojosef



For further information on the campaign, quotes or photos, please contact Warren Djanogly, campaign chair, at:



chairman@notobikeparkingtax.com

Mobile: 07802 882 681



or Charlie Lort-Phillips (Press Spokesman) on:



07813 138 517

charlie@notobikeparkingtax.com / charlielp@me.com

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The No To Bike Parking Fees protest group is the leading voice challenging the introduction of revenue raising parking charges in Westminster, with the support of the Taxpayers' Alliance and others. Further information is at www.notobikeparkingfees.com