Car Parking & Motoring News

Every year over 9 million passengers take the Eurostar and summer is the busiest time for making the trip over to Europe.

There are some great deals on at the moment, with some places offering Eurostar city breaks for less than £100 per person.

The ‘Eurostar Culture Connect’ programme also means that you can get 2 for 1 entry at many of the top galleries and museums in Paris and Brussels when you show your Eurostar ticket. Some of the galleries include The Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels and the Jeu de Paume photography museum in France.

If you’re taking the Eurostar this summer don’t forget that we have some great deals on parking near King’s Cross at the moment. Spaces are currently available for £15 per day next to the station to a very low £15 per week if you don’t mind taking a 10 minute walk from the space to King’s Cross St Pancras Station.

The start of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships is now only just over a week away.

As is customary on-street parking will not be permitted on any of the roads around the All England Club. Parking on Wimbledon Common is also restricted.

However, we do currently have a number of spaces available in the area, with daily rental prices varying from £10 to £25 per day. Take a look at our available parking near Wimbledon. If you know which day you’re going to the Championships then booking early is certainly recommended.

If you’re reading this then the chances are that you’re looking for somewhere to park or would like to earn an income from your space parking space or garage.

However, everyone needs to purchase gifts from time to time so we thought we’d round-up some of the best automotive gifts from a site which we’ve launched in a new field – gift ideas. Here are some of best automotive gift ideas that we’ve found online:

• LED Car Sign – now there’s a new way to communicate with fellow drivers. This car sign has five different signals and is controlled wirelessly by a button in the front of your car.
• Sat Nag System – not Sat Nav, but Sat Nag. This satellite navigational system is a novelty gift which will tell you everything except for where you actually want to go.
• Personalised ‘The Stig’ Poster – every driver loves The Stig. Now they can be The Stig with this personalised poster.
• Build Your Own Porsche – a great gift for young budding car enthusiasts, this kit allows you to build your very own mini porsche.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a gift with a little more adrenalin then try out three of the best driving experiences:

• Ferrari Driving – the most popular driving experience in the UK.
• Aston Martin Driving – a great gift for all those Aston Martin enthusiasts.
• Rally Driving – an off-road driving experience, with locations available throughout the UK.

If you’ve purchased any of these gifts or come across any other unusual car-related gifts feel free to mention them in the comments below.

The chancellor’s 1p rise in fuel duty comes into effect this evening, pushing the price per litre ever closer to the record 119.7p high recorded in the summer of 2008.

Fuel duty will rise by 1p again in October, followed by another 1p increase in January.

The biofuel subsidy, which pays producers 20p per litre, has also been removed and is estimated to add a further 1p to petrol prices in April.

The increases are not popular, as Luke Bosdet from the AA highlights:

“The changes announced in the Budget are not going to have drivers jumping for joy.”

“There is still a steady drip, drip, drip of more fuel tax siphoning off the family budget and undermining consumer spending.”

From today 100 new CCTV cameras are going live in Westminster. The network of cameras cost £15 million but has been down for the past year as they didn’t meet the Department for Transport guidelines on image quality.

However, dismissing concerns over the credit crunch and the spiraling government deficit, Westminster Council has splashed out £495,000 on improving image quality and another £330,000 on upgrading software.

Last year nearly 700,000 parking tickets were issued by the council and these cameras are expected to bring in another 140,000 fines.

Defending the cameras, Danny Chalkley, Westminster’s cabinet member for city management, said:

“We have sought a fairer approach to parking enforcement and are committed to getting it right first time round. CCTV is an effective tool in ensuring this happens.

“Cameras in Westminster are used in areas where there are known problems with traffic and anti-social behaviour and we hope that by highlighting the locations of these cameras motorists will think twice before driving dangerously or inconsiderately.”

Welcome to 2010, hope you all had a good New Year!

To coincide with the New Year we’ve launched our new blog, moving over from our old one here.

What can you expect? Far more frequent updates, the latest motoring news, the occasional interview, and updates on YourParkingSpace as the year progresses.

And of course, if there’s anything that you’d like to see more of just let us know in the comments below…