Matthew Offord
Conservative, Hendon
25th March 2015
To ask the Secretary of State
for Communities and Local Government, with reference to his
Department's announcement, Government delivers on parking promises to
help local shops, published on 6 March 2015, if he will take further
steps to ensure that local authority parking schemes are more
advantageous to motorists.
After five years in office, Offord emerges from his slumbers ask what the government is doing about dodgy parking regimes. Where has Offord been over the last five years? In Barnet, his chums on Barnet Council have done the following (and remember that Offord was the Deputy Leader of the Council before he became an MP in 2010).
* Hiked the cost of parking in the High Street
* Scrapped coin operated pay and display machines, forcing drivers to use a phone based system that takes up to 20 minutes to register (when you migh just want to pop in to a shop for a pint of milk)
* Used parking charges as a cash cow (millions of council in the special parking account)
* Employed a firm of private parking contractors to ruthlessly enforce the parking regime, with no regard to peoples circumstances, born out by the near 100% success rate of my fellow blogger Mr Mustard in helping people appeal them
* Illegally imposed a massive hike in CPZ parking costs, which was only struck out by the High Court, when residents had to sue the council to reverse it.
On Tuesday I attended the FSB North London business hustings and North Finchley Traders representative Helen Michael had this to say to the various candidates . She explained that she'd represented traders of North Finchley. In 5 years they'd collected 20000 sigs, attended meetings but all actions had been ignored. Arrogance & ignorance of councillors was unbelievable. In short, the Barnet Conservatives, of which Matthew Offord is a top dog, have no interest at all in parking.
It is all very well for MP's to start asking questions in the commons a couple of months before the election. Offord has no credibility as he didn't say a dickiebord for the last five years when his action could have made a huge difference, saved hundreds of small businesses and saved residents a fortune in car parking costs and hassle.
Of course the elephant in the room that Offord doesn't mention is just how much money the Tories recieve from the large retailers, who run shops at Brent Cross shopping centre, where of course parking is completely free.
After five years in office, Offord emerges from his slumbers ask what the government is doing about dodgy parking regimes. Where has Offord been over the last five years? In Barnet, his chums on Barnet Council have done the following (and remember that Offord was the Deputy Leader of the Council before he became an MP in 2010).
* Hiked the cost of parking in the High Street
* Scrapped coin operated pay and display machines, forcing drivers to use a phone based system that takes up to 20 minutes to register (when you migh just want to pop in to a shop for a pint of milk)
* Used parking charges as a cash cow (millions of council in the special parking account)
* Employed a firm of private parking contractors to ruthlessly enforce the parking regime, with no regard to peoples circumstances, born out by the near 100% success rate of my fellow blogger Mr Mustard in helping people appeal them
* Illegally imposed a massive hike in CPZ parking costs, which was only struck out by the High Court, when residents had to sue the council to reverse it.
On Tuesday I attended the FSB North London business hustings and North Finchley Traders representative Helen Michael had this to say to the various candidates . She explained that she'd represented traders of North Finchley. In 5 years they'd collected 20000 sigs, attended meetings but all actions had been ignored. Arrogance & ignorance of councillors was unbelievable. In short, the Barnet Conservatives, of which Matthew Offord is a top dog, have no interest at all in parking.
It is all very well for MP's to start asking questions in the commons a couple of months before the election. Offord has no credibility as he didn't say a dickiebord for the last five years when his action could have made a huge difference, saved hundreds of small businesses and saved residents a fortune in car parking costs and hassle.
Of course the elephant in the room that Offord doesn't mention is just how much money the Tories recieve from the large retailers, who run shops at Brent Cross shopping centre, where of course parking is completely free.
2 comments:
Spot on Roger, Offord is a complete joke, the Steve Brady of our times, the invisible man that pops out of the woodwork at election time. As long as no West Hendon residents are in the vicinity, or he would have to hide in the back of a police van.
I just hope this hypocritical joke of an excuse for an MP doesn't start claiming he cares about our local NHS, because we both know he was invited to do something about it back in March 2013, and has yet to even respond to any one of the areas of concern raised with your help in a letter I sent him.
A letter I hope you will post if this hypocrite starts to fanny about his concern and support for the NHS.
Politicians of all shades would guarantee there re election if they done what they promised ! However as you & John S , have pointed out promise the Earth before an election & then do F* *** All , when elected . We Deserve More !!! What I would say is Before you cast your Vote & you must !!! Look at the video of the sweets way evictions & then ask your sitting M P what they done to stop this ? Then cast your vote ! & if you vote for any of them shame on you .
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