Lambeth Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems committed to a fairer parking service

The 2006 Lib Dem manifesto pledges to 'Take the Profit out of Parking' - to scrap the privatised parking service and bring parking back under direct council management, either when the current contract ends or if the contractor fails. This will make it much easier to investigate wrongly-issued tickets and to ensure that parking attendants are properly trained. It will also allow all the income from fines to be spent on transport improvements, rather than the contractor taking a slice.

The Liberal Democrats have worked hard over the past four years to sort out parking and ensure the service is fair and reasonable, with no overzealous ticketing. We set up an all-party scrutiny commission to look into the service's problems - the first London borough to do so - and then the Executive Working Group on Parking to implement its recommendations. We have a long list of improvements to be proud of - as well as having maintained one of the cheapest residents' permits in inner London.

Labour's record on parking is abysmal. In 1998 they tried to negotiate a deal with the contractor which would guarantee them a staggering £10 million profit each and every year.

The Lib Dems' achievements include:-

*Introducing a new 15-minute minimum grace period after a ticket has been issued before a car can be clamped or towed away

*Ending weekend tow-aways except where vehicles are causing serious congestion or safety problems

*Stopping tickets being issued where car tyres are only 'kissing' the kerb (pavement parking is still banned, including parking with wheels on the kerb, unless signs indicate otherwise)

*Limiting night-time enforcement to a single mobile unit patrolling the borough's key road and hotspots, looking out for dangerous and obstructive parking

*Redesigning visitor permits so motorists are not fined for failing to scratch off the right year

*Ending ticketing for meter-feeding. Now motorists can buy more time after their initial purchase if they need a bit longer, provided the maximum stay in the bay is not exceeded

*Directing the new mobile CCTV enforcement service for moving traffic contraventions towards hotspot locations and outside schools where headteachers have requested it

*Giving residents one hour of free parking in pay and display bays at the beginning and at the end of controlled hours

*Introducing a special all-zone permit for key PCT workers from February 2006

*Publishing a new Parking Charter to help explain what residents and other road users can expect from the parking service

*Increasing resources to deal with parking complaints and eliminating the backlog of challenges

*Running parking forum events which give a group of volunteer residents the opportunity to present their views (we've also held a special event for faith groups to meet and express their concerns and we will doing the same for schools)

*Sending out first and second reminder letters when permits need renewing

*Introducing a 7-day grace period for permit holders whose permits are out of date. From 7 to 14 days a ticket may be issued but the car won't be clamped or removed

*Putting up signs at every CCTV location in the borough informing motorists of the cameras' ability to pick up parking offences and publishing the locations on the web

*Doubling the size of the maintenance team so that, for the first time, the council is able to carry out in the very least daily checks on all of the borough's parking meters. Over the past year this has massively reduced the down-time of machines caused by breakdowns and vandalism, boosting P&D revenue and avoiding motorists' frustration from not being able to find a working machine

*Installing new free short-term parking bays to support local shops, such as on Abbeville Road, Norwood Road, Streatham Vale and Wandsworth Road and planned for Emmanuel Road and Kennington Road. We're also committed to the installation of more where we can.

*Increasing resources to speed up the implementation of improvements flagged up by Controlled Parking Zone reviews and to make sure that signs and lines are clear, consistent and easily understood. In turn this is helping to reduce the volume of complaints we receive

Labour's record on parking:

Despite Lambeth Labour's feigned interest today, instead of working to improve the service during their disastrous years in control, Labour councillors only paid parking any attention in 1998 when negotiating an extension to the contract with the then enforcement contractor Drakes, when they thought they could get their hands on 'a guaranteed net cash income of £10 million to the Council from 1998-99 onwards,' with any generated income over £10 million to be shared equally between the existing contractor and the Council.' Lambeth residents were only saved from parking enforcement involving such staggering financial incentives because of Labour's incompetence in failing to legally formalise the agreement, resulting in months of disagreement and confusion between the council and the contractor.

A year later when putting together a new parking contract, ultimately signed with APCOA, Labour councillors agreed at a meeting on 4th August 1999 that the incentive element should now be 'more legally watertight'. Incidentally, despite their pursuit of profit, Labour left behind £9 million of uncollected parking fine debt when they left office, which they'd incompetently failed to collect.

Lambeth Labour's opportunism and negative campaigning on the parking issue has never really been backed up with a positive programme for action. This is brought out in their 2006 manifesto, with its headline pledge on parking ('Stop the secret Lib Dem plan to double parking charges' - a complete fabrication). This is a commitment to not do something that we're not planning to do anyway.

In contrast to their record on parking when they ran the council, Labour's line now is that they would scrap the 'unfair' incentives in the parking contract, by which it is presumed they mean the expected level of activity. So whilst the Lib Dems want to take the profit out of parking completely, Labour just want to tinker with the contract. What's not clear is how they would go about doing this. If there are no quantitative performance indicators in the contract it will be very difficult to ensure the council is getting value for money and to prevent the contractor from taking the council for a ride by not doing enough to tackle illegal parking.

The wider issues around parking

Dealing with parking stress is about more than just tickets and attendants. Over the last four years the Lib Dems have also been working hard to address the problems presented by the growing pressure on on-street parking space, to promote sustainable transport and reduce car reliance: -

Lib Dems are committed to giving people the parking controls they want and maximising on-street parking space. When Labour ran the council they asked residents if they wanted controlled parking, but failed to say they did not have the money to pay to introduce new zones. Where TfL paid for new zones Labour promised to review them after introduction to make sure they were working well, but again failed to set aside any money.

Now that we're getting up to speed the council is able to be increasingly responsive to what residents need: we've introduced free short-term bays in the borough outside local shops and slashed the hours of operation of parking zones to give residents' more flexibility where it's been called for. This year we've boosted the parking design budget to £460k - a budget that was non-existent under Labour.

We've used the planning process to protect the borough from over-development and house conversions, taking into consideration the potential increase in parking stress and mitigating the impact of new development by making them 'car free' and restricting the issuance of on-street parking permits.

Residents in and around the Congestion Charging Zone have been disproportionately hit by measures to promote sustainable transport. In recognition of this Lambeth Lib Dems have introduced a £10 discount on the cost of parking permits for residents within the zone and continue to campaign for a congestion charge discount for Kennington residents living just outside the zone. Lambeth's resident's permit is in any case one of the cheapest in Inner London. Compared to those of other London local authorities the charge in Lambeth of £3.50 for a whole day's parking is very reasonable. In addition, parking charges have been frozen since May 2004.

We've made an unprecedented amount of money available to introduce appropriate and effective traffic calming measures across the borough to make residential streets safer and cut down on rat-running.

Though it is commonly thought the money from parking fines goes straight to the council this is not the case. By law the money has to be ring-fenced for use on transport. In Lambeth it is spent on funding the Freedom Pass, a free travel pass for the elderly and disabled - which this coming year will cost £6.4 million - and any remainder on work such as filling in pot holes, resurfacing roads and repairing pavements.

There has not in fact been a huge leap in the number of tickets issued since 2002. The number of PCNs issued (excluding bus lane PCNs) went up from 162,613 in 2002/03 to 184,157 in 2003/04 and 243,667 in 2004/05 but is projected to fall back again in 2005/06 as a result of the rolling programme of improvements to the enforcement service that has been put in place in the last 12 months. The increase in the number of tickets issued over the last few years is because the area of the borough covered by parking controls has increased due to resident pressure, because of an increase in cars on the road, increased commuting and the effect of the congestion charge.

In 2001/02 (Labour's last year in power) Lambeth issued 193,797 PCNs. Since then a total of three entirely new zones (Poets Corner 'P', Brixton 'E' and Brixton Hill East 'Q') and two significant extensions to existing zones (Clapham 'L' and Thornton 'R') will have been introduced. So there has not been a huge increase in the number of tickets issued since Labour were in control.