Parking fee rise too big

Published: 11th March, 2011

• THE Labour Party took Islington Council from the previous administration on the grounds of contrasting its transparent, honourable intentions with those of its Lib Dem predecessors. As far as I can see, nothing has changed.

I was appalled to discover that, when it came to renewing my resident’s parking permit, the fee had gone up by a staggering 60 per cent from £55 to £88. My car is in a so-called “low CO2 emissions” bracket, not a huge gas-guzzler. 

The letter inviting me to renew talked in mealy-mouthed terms about “changing” the parking charges, which in almost all cases appears to mean “vastly increasing”. I am a working parent and not having a car is not an option, neither is exchanging my modest saloon for an expensive hybrid. We know Islington’s parking policy has always been a covert way of imposing a local tax, presumably to offset some of the huge deficits recently revealed.

I am aware there is an active lobby attempting to curb the excesses of the council’s ambition to make money in the form of parking charges. However, the council has, yet again, arrogantly overridden the people’s representations. In an era of five per cent inflation, this increase is utterly indefensible.
Bonnie Taylor
N19