Councillor Craske attacks another small business

The legislation on Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) says “Enforcement authorities should run their CPE operations (both on and off-street) efficiently, effectively and economically. The purpose of penalty charges is to dissuade motorists from breaking parking restrictions. The objective of CPE should be for 100 per cent compliance, with no penalty charges”.

Bexley council doesn’t like that, their mission is maximum revenue. To that end they hide their CCTV cars in side streets and use long lenses to catch the unwary. They are not interested in “dissuasion”, their preference is for entrapment.

Where Erith Road meets Fraser Road in Erith there are several small shops with a bus stop in front of them (one bus every 12 minutes on route 99) and a road opposite which is on rising ground. Bexley’s gestapo wagon parks at that higher level and trains its camera on the bus stop. In doing so it peers straight into the bedrooms of the flats above the shops.

Right behind the bus stop is a Nisa convenience store run by a family prepared to work all hours. It is a surprisingly large and well stocked shop and no doubt very useful to the surrounding population placed as it is half way between Belvedere and Erith shopping centres; but you can’t park outside because the whole of the available space is occupied by a bus stop. It’s there for no very obvious reason, it could just as well be placed 50 metres further along the road and solve a lot of problems - but then it wouldn’t be a money maker for Bexley council.

As it is, the shop is not the money maker it could be. The owner says that “customers just carry on by and go to the big supermarkets or out of town shopping centres”. Regular customers have been allowed to use the area in front of his gate as a parking space but that too has resulted in penalty charges, either for lingering at the bus stop while turning into the delivery area or for parking on the pavement even though it is private property. The owner of the silver coloured car shown here received a penalty because his car overhung the pavement by a matter of inches. A disabled lady who lives above the shop and suffers from CCTV intrusion into her bedroom is regularly given a penalty because she is slow to open the gate.

The Notomob is a team of motorcyclists intent on persuading councils that they should operate within the law (and clearly they do not at present) and they have been honouring Bexley with their presence regularly after being attracted by my report on Blackfen Road. They have been active in Fraser Road and the shop has one of their notices displayed in the window. The owner is therefore ‘guilty’ of the same ‘offence’ as Mr. Peaple who displayed a warning notice at his shop and was reported to the police for his entirely lawful action. (There is an outstanding FOI to Bexley council on this subject.)

The effect of Bexley council’s activities is devastating on local businesses. They do not care.

May 2011