Barnet in a tizzy

Barnet seem to be getting in a right state over pavement parking and road safety which is unfortunately one of the worst in London. According to an article published yesterday in a local paper the police have again been issuing dummy parking tickets to motorists who park on the pavement. The local (conservative) council explained that the notices were handed put because of complaints from pedestrians. The Labour party environment spokesperson has rather strangely come out on the side of the motorists saying ‘This is the Barnet Tories once again coming down heavy handed, using a hammer to crack a nut. Why don’t they listen to residents and come up with a scheme that benefits everyone?‘. A Conservative councillor has said that he is pushing for a scheme to allow residents to park on the paths and has asked for no tickets to be issued until one is drawn up. Umm… ok, so we will stop illegal parking once we have made parking on the pavement legal? Is that how it will work?

And then one angry motorist says it will be very dangerous and people we die: “If we’re forced to park on the road there’s going to be hell to pay. The other day an ambulance tried to get down Cheviot Gardens but there were two cars on the road and they had to knock on neighbours doors to get them to move. That’s a life and death situation and it’s crazy. By coincidence another article in today’s edition of the same paper highlighted the borough scary road safety record; nine were killed and 1,520 injured in traffic incident in the borough during 2010 including 241 pedestrians and 82 cyclists (up 32% on 2009). In neighbouring Harrow there were just two deaths and 551 casualties in the year and in Enfield had seven deaths and 1,075 hurt. That is a lot of people!

Fake parking tickets