Friday 6 April 2012

Brian Coleman induced parking mayhem spreads across Barnet

Earlier in the week, we learned that Councillor Brian Colemans decision to abolish free parking bays last year had caused mayem on Bittacy Hill. Buses were held up, the Police had got involved, local residents were inconvenienced and traffic flow was impaired. As parking restrictions are designed to "improve traffic flow", it is clear that Coleman has produced a policy which doesn't work. Not only that, it may be illegal, as it is clearly a revenue raising move (yet another Colemanite Stealth tax).

It appears that Bittacy Hill is not the only place in Barnet to be under the "Coleman Cosh". The Barnet Eye today learned that Bunns Lane in Mill Hill is also suffering. As with the Bittacy Hill cock up, Barnet Council have tried to bury the bad news, by releasing the information as an officer released DPR. Clearly Brian Coleman wants no association with the failure of his policy to be associated with him, in the run up to the GLA elections.

Here is a link to the report
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=11121

And here is what its says Colemans policies have done to traffic in Bunns Lane Mill Hill.


8. BACKGROUND INFORMATION



8.1 

Bunns Lane/Grahame Park Way NW7


In June 2011 the Council completed a scheme whereby all ‘Free’ parking bays
were converted to permit holder or paid for parking bays in the borough’s Controlled
Parking Zones (CPZs). Subsequent to the changes being made to the Mill Hill CPZ,
Councillor Rayner and TFL have reported that an increased level of parking is
occurring on both sides of Bunns Lane between the junction of Woodcroft Avenue
and the mini roundabout at the junction with Grahame Park Way which is just
outside of the CPZ boundary.


8.2 Bunns Lane has seen an increase in parking activity since the removal of the free
bays in the adjoining CPZ by motorists, suspected to be commuters using the local
transport links parking their vehicles throughout the day. Motorists are parking as
close as possible to the current restrictions which is causing obstruction for larger
vehicles including buses and commercial vehicles resulting in an increase in
congestion along this section of Bunns Lane. A site visit by Officers and Councillor
Rayner confirmed that obstructive parking is detrimental to traffic flow.

8.3 As a result of these observations, it is intended to propose and implement ‘At Any
Time’ waiting restrictions in lengths of Bunns Lane and Grahame Park Way, in
order to improve traffic flow along these stretches of road:


8.4 In addition, it is also proposed to extend the existing Monday to Saturday 8am to
6.30pm waiting restrictions in Bunns Lane for a short length. The proposal is
shown on the drawing 21729/744 appended to this report.


8.5 Councillor Rayner has since reaffirmed his views and support for the proposals. In
particular, Councillor Rayner advised of his concerns regarding safety being an
issue at this location.


8.6 All Hale Ward and Mill Hill Ward Members have been consulted on the proposals
Councillor Sury Khatri has confirmed his support for the measures.

As one may have come to expect from our useless and cowardly Mill Hill and Hale Ward Tory Councillors, there has been no attempt to stand up for the hard pressed commuters of Mill Hill, who resnet being stung by extortionate car packing charges at Mill Hill Broadway Station car park. These were hiked to £5 a day last year. Who can blame ordinary working people for wishing to try and avoid such daylight robbery. There is no mention from them that prior to Brian Colemans cash grabbing abolition of Free bays, this wasn't a problem. There is no mention of the fact that there is widespread opposition to the CPZ parking hikes.

Section 8.6 gives  the game away. Of six councillors informed of the changes affecting their ward, only one Sury Khatri appears to have bothered to respond. What does this tell us about the Conservative Councillors who now represent Mill Hill and Hale Ward. It strikes me as likely that the council planned to roll out these sort of sneaky parking restrictions across the Borough, under the radar as officer approved DPR's. I urge the opposition Labour and Lib Dem councillors to call all of these in for review to expose Colemans policies for the abject failure and cash grab, which everyone knows they are.

I stood for election in May 2010 for Mill Hill Ward. I lost out to the Conservatives. They get [paid thousands of pounds a year to represent the people of Mill Hill. This DPR lays bare just how useless and lazy they are. How hard is it to read your paperwork and let the Council know when the people you represent are being fleeced. Brian Coleman has materially damaged the infrastructure of Mill Hill, with his cash grabbing policies and our councillors are to scared of him to say a dickie bird about it. Shame on all of them. As to the Hale Councillors, they are even more useless. Tome Davey is on the Cabinet and has waved all of these Tax the motorist policies through, stopping only to abuse people on benefits at every opportunity. Councillor Hugh Rayner is the chairman of the Local Conservative Party and so is clearly hand in glove with Coleman and his grab your cash policies. As to the other Hale Councillor, he's so useless, I can't even remember his name. Maybe he's the invisible man. Maybe he's a figment of Councillor Robert Rams imagination. If he's ever lifted a finger to stop the good people of Hale Ward being ripped off by Brian Coleman please feel free to add a comment, because he must have done it in secret.

The Barnet Eye will continue to fight to save the hard pressed families and commuters of Mill Hill from the cash grabbing excesses of Brian Coleman and his policies of Stealth taxation. It seems that in Mill Hill, you only see Tory Councillors when they want your vote. You will find the Barnet Eye here 365 days a year fighting for you. Enjoy your Easter

Here is the full document for your perusal
1604 - Introduction of Waiting Restrictions

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This change just highlights the utter idiocy of these politicians. Get it into your stupid heads - people in zone 4 use private transport to get to public transport. Do you not see why so many more people take the train at Mill Hill broadway versus Hendon? Do you even know this? Do you not want people to use public transport if you are so concerned about carbon dioxide?

They take so much of our money and then make life so difficult for your average net tax contributor.

In this case, because buses were delayed for a few seconds, they are adding and extra 10 minutes or more commuters journeys. Although, of note, no mathematical evidence is provided for bus journey times on that road without parking (e.g. weekends) versus with the parking.

The idiots could have also not built those stupid council houses by the station and turned them into a subsidised car park for people with evidences of living in Mill Hill. But no, they make the mistake of thinking our money is their money and using trying to generate revenue to give themselves more 'stuff' to play with.

Stupid busybodies - you are not needed, you are utterly incompetent and we would be far better off without you.

Anonymous said...

BTW, the reason why very few post on this site is most likely due to the information requested to do so. Why not link twitter or do something else to make it easier to post.