Barnet Councils unfair car parking charges

I have a question for the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan. She's rather keen on the concept of the Easycouncil, where the more you pay, the better service you get. Well that's what she preaches but what actually happens in practice? When it comes to parking in Barnet, it depends where you live. The cost of buying a resident car parking permit in Barnet is the same for all residents. So far so good. The only problem is that depending on where you live, you get a vastly different set of parking rights for your money.

If, for example you live in Nether Street,Finchley, you get exclusive use of the residents parking bays all day long - 9am till 5pm from Mondays till Saturday.  Now considering that it cost £3 a day to park in the Councils Bunns Lane Car park, you get a pretty good deal for your £40. Generally it is fairly easy for residents to find a space whenever they need one.

In Millway, Mill Hill, you get a slightly different deal. For your £40 you get 1 hour, from Monday to Friday. Most residents, especially in the lower part of the road, cannot park anywhere near their homes until the vast majority of shoppers have departed the Broadway. Most residents who use the parking permits use the spaces when returning home from dropping off children or collecting the from school. There is a busy nursery in the road, who have parents dropping children off at just the times when parents are returning from the school run.

This blog accepts that there is no way that everyone can be satisfied by such schemes, but it certainly seems unfair to me that £40 in Nether Street buys you a space all day, wheras £40 in Millway buys you a space during the period of the day when you are least likely to need it. Given that the Barnet Conservatives are desperately trying to plug the holes in the finances that they've generated by losing money in Iceland, Aerodrome Road etc, I doubt that any suggestion to reduce parking fees will be looked at, but surely a fair council would give people who only get 1 hour a day a discount over those guaranteed parking all day long.

I await a reply from Lynne Hillan explaining to me how the current system can possibly be considered to be fair.