Westminster press ahead with bike parking charge

MOTORCYCLISTS will be charged for on-street parking in central London from 25th January, it has been announced.

Westminster City Council are pressing ahead with the controversial initiative, despite the uproar the charge has caused among bikers both in London and nationwide.

Last week, London bikers took action by defacing many of the Council's parking bay signs, rendering the parking charge unenforceable. Westminster confirmed parking signs have been vandalised in protest at the charge, causing £66,000 worth of damage since trials begun last August.

The council says it will prosecute anyone found vandalising council property and say they have increased surveillance on parking signs.

One of the key figures behind Westminster's initiative, Councillor Danny Chalkley met with the Chairman of the No To Bike Parking Taxes campaign, Mr Warren Djanogly. In the meeting it's reported Councillor Chalkley said:
“If it wasn’t for your (No To Bike Parking Taxes) public protests I could have quietly scrapped the motorcycle parking charges, but I am under pressure from my colleagues to make it permanent."

Mmm. The plot thickens. You've not won yet, Chalkley. Not by a long, er, chalk.