The Motorcycle Action Group has announced that it will be meeting with Islington Borough Council over the introduction of motorcycle parking charges in the borough.
Back at the beginning of February, the Islington Borough Council introduced a new £1 parking charge for motorcycles parking in the borough’s dedicated motorcycle parking bays, which it said was a change to existing parking charges.
That claim, the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) says, allowed the Council to bypass public consultation on the introduction of the £1 motorcycle parking charge.
However, MAG says the Council’s claim, that the introduction of the £1 charge for motorcycles is an evolution of existing charges, is in fact false, since it was previously free to park in Islington’s motorcycle parking bays. Parking outside the motorcycle bays necessitated a resident’s permit, which has been unchanged since the introduction of the £1 charge.
MAG says that there was no contact from Islington Borough Council to any motorcycling organisations about the new charges before they were introduced, and that there was no public notification from the Council of its intention to begin charging for motorcycle parking.
Opposition to Hackney Council’s motorcycle parking charges, which were at one point set to cost powered two-wheeler owners up to £14,000 per year, has been led by the Greater London Motorcycle Action Group (GLMAG), which has campaigned alongside Save London Motorcycling (SLMC) to reduce the parking charges for solo motorcycle bays, planned by Hackney Council, from around £60 per day to £10.
However, resident and business permit charges have not changed under Hackney’s most-recent proposals (which are set to be presented for approval on 27 March), and SLMC says it was not consulted on the changes despite assurances from Hackney Council that it would consult the motorcycling campaign group before such changes were put forward.
GLMAG has confirmed a meeting is scheduled between itself and Islington Borough Council regarding the Islington £1 charge for next Monday (27 March 2023), the same day as the Hackney proposals are set to be put forward for approval.
A statement from a GLMAG spokesperson highlights the distrust between motorcycle groups and local governments, and the feeling that the opposition faced by Hackney Council has directly influenced the path taken in Islington. They said: “This is a clear attempt by the council to bypass democratic scrutiny. They have seen what happened in Hackney and wanted to avoid the uproar. This is a sign that our campaigning is working, but we need to be on the lookout for other councils doing the same. Cock-up or conspiracy? Either way it’s a totally unacceptable way for a democratic organisation to behave, and it goes against all democratic norms. No other council has taken such an underhand approach.”
