When it comes to bullshit, no one does it better than Bristol City Council (BCC). From the half-arsed efforts of mayor Not Very Marvellous Marvin Rees to decide even on the location of an arena, never mind actually building the bloody thing, BCC now decides that there are too many people coming into Bristol of a night time and on Sundays, so they are reintroducing on street parking charges. Too many people coming to eat, watch a show, see a gig, do some shopping, see the sights. Instead, they want to force us to use inefficient, over-priced and unreliable public transport.
Bristol has a “cabinet member for Transport and Connectivity – of course, it does – and her name is Mhairi Threlfall who says this: “In a vibrant, busy city like Bristol, how we manage parking supply and demand in our central areas is critical to keeping everyone moving, whilst also helping to tackle congestion and improve air quality. With more people living and working in the city centre and changes to the design and layout of our highway network, we need to review our parking tariffs to ensure they help balance demand.” Whilst I wait for an English translation, my reaction is this: bullshit.
Contrary to rumours to the contrary but I was not born yesterday. Whilst I do not hold all politicians in contempt, I’m afraid it is hard to have any other type of reaction to BCC’s decision to reintroduce parking charges. This is surely nothing to do with promoting businesses which are already struggling in the current economic climate, it is not to keep everyone moving; it is about making more money from the motorist. It is from the same school of thinking as speed cameras where they are placed not necessarily in dangerous areas but in places where they can bring in the most money possible. In short, the parking charges are local stealth taxes to help the mayor fail to deal with any of Bristol’s real problems and its chronic lack of ambition.
I just wish they’d be honest. They see parking charges as a way of making more money. It’s politics and it’s exactly how we know it.
