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Parking Tickets Soar Under Labour
April 19, 2007 12:21 PM
Parking tickets haved soared under Labour
Motorists fervently courted by Labour as their friend during the run-up to the local elections last May are now discovering the true cost of Labour's smooth-talking intentions.
Liberal Democrat councillors have discovered that the number of parking tickets issued in December 06, January 07 and February 07 was actually a whopping 2,000 higher than for the same months the year before.
In every month but one since winning the election last May tickets issued have risen. In one month alone it was 3,500 tickets higher - and the number of tickets being appealed has also risen sharply.
Labour falsely claimed prior to the election that incentives were being used by the Council through its private parking contractor to ticket motorists unfairly.
The acid test of Labour's avowed fairer parking strategy since May, therefore, would have been to see parking tickets numbers fall and income levels plunge. But the game was up when a report showed that Labour's much-heralded parking changes were always meant to be revenue neutral.
The Liberal Democrats went into the last elections pledging to bring the parking service back In House to avoid charges of profiteering from motorists. However, Labour chose not to go down that route and maintained the contract with the private contractor they were previously so critical of.
The latest parking figures show that ticketing is increasing not decreasing and is the latest blow to rock Labour following recent tabloid scandals of residents' cars being towed away and crushed while they went on holiday. And if Lambeth's hard-pressed motorists are thinking all this is bad enough, just wait until they get their massively increased parking permit bills.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Julian Heather said, "The latest figures expose the big lie behind Labour's so-called 'fairer parking'. Under the new contract, which was supposed to stop over-zealous ticketing, there has been a whopping increase in parking fines."
Councillor Heather added, "Whatever they said before the election, it just goes to show that everyone pays more under Labour."