Councillor Slammed for Backing Parking Fines Hike

LBH&F’s Deputy Leader recommends 50% rise in charges

Opposition Councillors are claiming that local parking fines will rise from £80 to £120 due to the intervention of a Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor.

Councillor Nick Botterill (Con), the Deputy Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council is said to have intervened in a London wide meeting to argue for increased rates of parking fines.

The decision was made at the Conservative controlled London Councils - a body which represents all thirty three Councils in the Capital. The minutes of the meeting on 8th December (available on the councils' website) show that Cllr. Botterill objected when the meeting agreed to have an £80 fine for not displaying a ticket in a parking bay. Instead, Councillor Botterill argued for an increase to £120 and the meeting agreed to go with his recommended 50% hike in charges. The new charges will kick in from July.

Councillor Michael Cartwright said, "This money all goes directly into the Council's own bank account and is a cynical means of raising extra funds. At least Councillor Botterill had the good grace to look embarrassed when I raised this with him at the last Council meeting.”

He continued “Local people are genuinely shocked when they find out that it is one of our borough's elected representatives who pushed through this massive increase in parking fines. He must have thought that nobody would go through the minutes of the meeting and that he would get away with it. He hasn't.”

March 2, 2007