Westminster Council's "treating motorists as cash point".
Further to documents obtained by us the Telegraph today reports on how Westminster Council is seemingly using motorists to raise revenue. This would be illegal. Paul Dimoldenberg the leader of the opposition at Westminster says "Westminster conservatives are treating motorists as their own cash point".
Information that we have uncovered seems to suggest that the upgrade of their CCTV system in 2009/10 was for revenue raising purposes and not traffic management. The council is issuing up to 6,000 penalty charge notices a month from small black dome cameras on lampposts. Many motorists who pull over are being sent £130 fines in the post. Many cameras are directed at cash points.
Westminster will shortly announce plans that will almost certainly mean longer parking controls in the West End including Sunday charging. They say that they are doing this for various reasons including the Olympics and demand for kerb space. We have been passed a document that says that officers had been told to "look more closly at parking and community safety to find further reductions (or additional income)" The original plans to charge until midnight were unveiled just 6 weeks later and would raise an additional £5.8m for the council.
Lee Rowley the council's cabinet member for parking said "The council does not use parking to raise revenue, but it would be remiss of us not to budget for the future or take into account the full impact of any potential changes to any of its policies".
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