Bar Bar Barnet have you any Fools? The Conservative manifesto for parking

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people, all of the time - so they say. But can you win an election by fooling enough of the people, enough of the time.

Richard Cornelius, Leader of the Barnet Tories is an affable chap. He tells a good story and he enjoys the job of being leader of Barnet Council. Unlike some of his predecessors, he likes the job and does not see it as a stepping stone to greater things. His manifesto is rather short and light on detail. In fact it is rather appealing. If I hadn't spent the last six years writing blogs about what the council are up to, I may even be taken in. See what you think?

I've done a quick fisk of their parking policies in their manifesto Our comments are in red italics. Others will follow


THE BARNET CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO

Parking

We will continue to regularly assess parking charges and restrictions and provide local solutions to local problems where they arise. - Immediately after the council elections in 2010, they abolished pay and display and illegally hiked CPZ charges. A measure that was reversed only when residents took them to court and declared the charges illegal. Far from providing solutions, they have caused chaos.

We have:

Reduced charges in many town centres by 35% - Given the huge rises since they took over, many charges rose from 30p an hour to £2 under the Tories

Introduced new tariffs that enable free parking periods of between 15 minutes and 2 hours - Strangely this free parking was brought in just before the election, how coincidental

Converted loading bays to split-use bays with short stay free parking - again strangely this free parking was brought in just before the election, how coincidental

Introduced 59 pay-by-card meters across the Borough to provide an alternative to pay-by-phone and the scratch cards - a panic measure brought in by the failure of their original policy of scrapping them in 2010, where £2 million worth of perfectly good parking ticket machines went to the scrap yard. The new machines do not even take cash! 

We will:

Aim for 85% occupancy in both on-street and off-street parking to ensure that there is a high level of usage, but that there is a steady enough turnover to enable people to find a space - This will be done by rigid enforcement and ticketing

Continuously review parking charges and introduce ‘wave and pay’ when developed - When developed? Why no date, could it be that like many other promises, it is a pie in the sky promise?

Review signs and lines to make sure drivers have clear information - they are doing this because hundreds of residents have escaped parking tickets due to the signage in Barnet being defective. This means all tickets are null and void and the council losing appeals> My fellow blogger Mr Mustard is an expert at advising on these appeals (click here http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/ )


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 What do you think? Would you trust 'em?