Westminster Council Defy Public Opinion & Introduce Sunday Parking Fees

From this evening parking charges on Sundays of £4.40 per hour are going to be approved by Westminster Council. This comes despite public outrage at the fees and condemnation from the general public, businesses, and even the church who organised a march last week which 3,500 people attended.

Reverend Canon Dr Giles Fraser summed up the mood, saying:

“The Church is really angry about this. When Sunday trading came in we were promised that it would not lead to the full commercialisation of Sunday, but it seems that we were not told the truth. It’s likely many of the local authorities are doing this because of the national deficit.”

Sarah Cordey from the British Retail Consortium has also spoken up against the introduction of fees:

“It’s short-sighted to treat parking as a revenue-raiser. New fees, which take advantage of shoppers, risk driving away business from town and city centres.”

Westminster Council has defended their plans saying that they have a duty to ensure that parking is available to people visiting the area. However, it’s clear what the real motive is. Parking is big business for the council. It brings them over £50 million a year and this is an easy way to raise additional money.

It’s disappointing that Westminster Council has done this against opposition from all sides, and then claimed that it’s following a widespread consultation and is actually to ensure that there’s sufficient parking available. From our own experience we’ve spoken to the Westminster Council a number of times and they have proved to be very stubborn, aggressive, and certainly never concerned about a lack of parking spaces in the borough.

We do have private spaces currently available in Westminster. Check them out – you could save quite a bit when compared to the Council’s fees.