How is the Motorcycle parking Charges "Revenue-Neutral"?

Ben Tweedy made this Freedom of Information request to Westminster City Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Ben Tweedy

17 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

In response to FOI Request 3837
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/12...)
you state that "It is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown
of how the revenue generated by the experimental motorcycle parking
charge was spent. This is because the surplus generated in the
period requested goes into the Parking Places Reserve Account
(PPRA) along with surpluses from other parking activities and,
under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, is applied to meet the
cost of providing and maintaining parking facilities, highways
improvement schemes and public passenger transport services."

Please explain how you can claim that the scheme is revenue-neutral
when you do not know how much surplus income has been generated?

I find it quite astonishing that all money generated from parking
schemes goes into a single pot, with no accounts held for where the
incoming money is coming from.

Yours faithfully,

Ben tweedy

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From: Ben Tweedy

19 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please acknowledge receipt of the above FOI request
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...)

I understand you may be busy, but you have confirmed receipt of
other FOI requests that have been sent after this one.

Yours faithfully,

Ben Tweedy

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Westminster City Council

20 August 2009

Confirmation of Freedom Of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information.

Your request details have now been recorded and will be passed on to the
appropriate Divisional Records Officer for action.

This Freedom Of Information Request was based on the following
information:

Name: Ben Tweedy
Address: see email address
Email: [FOI #17104 email]
Telephone:
Request Details: In response to FOI Request 3837
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/12...)
you state that "It is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown of how
the revenue generated by the experimental motorcycle parking charge was
spent. This is because the surplus generated in the period requested goes
into the Parking Places Reserve Account (PPRA) along with surpluses from
other parking activities and, under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984,
is applied to meet the cost of providing and maintaining parking
facilities, highways improvement schemes and public passenger transport
services."

Please explain how you can claim that the scheme is revenue-neutral when
you do not know how much surplus income has been generated? I find it
quite astonishing that all money generated from parking schemes goes into
a single pot, with no accounts held for where the incoming money is coming
from.

FOI Reference Number: 4269
Target Completion Date: 15/09/2009

Please do not reply to this email.
This is an automatic response to your request, and replies to this message
will not be actioned.

If you need to contact Westminster City Council regarding your request,
please contact:

mailto:[Westminster City Council request email]
Tel:020 7641 3921

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From: Customer Relations
Westminster City Council

21 August 2009

Dear Mr Tweedy,

Thank you for your e-mail sent from the "whatdotheyknow.com" website
dated 20 August 2009, which was automatically logged as FOI4269.

As this is a commentary from you regarding your feelings on the
response to Freedom of Information Request 3837, it cannot be responded as
a further Freedom of

Information request. A full response was given in FOI3837 (which you
should refer to); therefore, FOI4269 has now been closed.

This response, therefore, acts as a refusal under the Freedom of
Information Act (2000), Part 1, Section 14 (2) Where a public authority
has previously complied with a request for information which was made by
any person, it is not obliged to comply with a subsequent identical or
substantially similar request from that person unless a reasonable
interval has elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the
making of the current request.

Yours sincerely,

A Daly (DRO)

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From: Ben Tweedy

21 August 2009

Dear Andrew Daly,

Please re-read the original FOI request (FOI4269) which quite
clearly asks how the motorcycle parking charges are
revenue-neutral. A full response was given in FOI3837, but this
response was not to the question "how is the motorcylce parking
charge revenue neutral".

I made the point that you do not know how much money is raised from
it, therefore cannot claim that the parking charge is revenue
neutral.

To make this FOI request clearer for you, please provide the total
amount of money raised from the motorcycle parking charge and the
total of the money spent on motorcycle parking to date. If the two
amounts are the same, i will accept that the charges are revenue
neutral. If the two amounts are different, please explain why and
how Cllr Chalkley claims the motorcycle parking charge can be
revenue neutral.

This response,therefore, acts as a refusal or your refusal under
the FOI act.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Tweedy

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Westminster City Council

24 August 2009

Confirmation of Freedom Of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information.

Your request details have now been recorded and will be passed on to the
appropriate Divisional Records Officer for action.

This Freedom Of Information Request was based on the following
information:

Name: Mr Ben Tweedy
Address: [email address]
Email: [email address]
Telephone:
Request Details: Please refer to the original request (FOI4269),
which quite clearly asks how the motorcycle parking charges are
revenue-neutral. (A full response was given in FOI3837, but this
response was not to the question "how is the motorcylce
parking charge revenue neutral").

Please provide the total amount of money raised from the motorcycle
parking charge and the total of the money spent on
motorcycle parking to date. If the two amounts are the same, i will
accept that the charges are revenue neutral. If the two
amounts are different, please explain why and how Cllr Chalkley claims
the motorcycle parking charge can be revenue
neutral.

FOI Reference Number: 4281
Target Completion Date: 22/09/2009

Please do not reply to this email.
This is an automatic response to your request, and replies to this message
will not be actioned.

If you need to contact Westminster City Council regarding your request,
please contact:

mailto:[Westminster City Council request email]
Tel:020 7641 3921

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From: Daly, Andrew
Westminster City Council

27 August 2009

Attachment FOI4281 Tweedy ABD.doc
43K Download View as HTML

Dear Sir <<FOI4281 Tweedy ABD.doc>>

Please find the attached response enclosed.

Yours sincerely,

A Daly

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From: Ben Tweedy

1 September 2009

Dear Andrew Daly,

Thank you for your reply, but unfortunately you have not answered
the question. Please answer the original question which was "Please
explain how you can claim that the scheme is revenue-neutral
when you do not know how much surplus income has been generated?"

I understand that (from FOI request 3837) "It is not possible to
provide a detailed breakdown
of how the revenue generated by the experimental motorcycle parking
charge was spent. This is because the surplus generated in the
period requested goes into the Parking Places Reserve Account
(PPRA) along with surpluses from other parking activities and,
under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, is applied to meet the
cost of providing and maintaining parking facilities, highways
improvement schemes and public passenger transport services."

So as it is not possible to provide a breakdown of how the money
generated from the charge is spent, please tell me why Westminster
City Council and Cllr Danny Chalkey continue referring to the
charge as revenue-neutral when it cannot be proved to be
revenue-neutral.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Tweedy

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Paul Martin left an annotation ( 1 September 2009)

"and to make off-street motorcycle bays free of charge. "

I don't recall that the off-street bays were being charged before the introduction of this tax, so the above statement should also be challanged!!

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From: Customer Relations
Westminster City Council

2 September 2009

[Subject only] FW: Follow up commentary by Mr Ben Tweedy on Reinvestment into wider parking and transport infrastructure related schemes and projects (PPRA)

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Francis Irving left an annotation ( 3 September 2009)

You need to click on "show quoted sections" to see their latest reply (as it was forwarded by someone, and WhatDoTheyKnow thinks it was not a new message)

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From: Customer Relations
Westminster City Council

2 September 2009

Dear Mr Tweedy,

Dear Mr Tweedy

Thank you for your further email regarding our recent FOI Response. Under
the Freedom of Information Act (2000), we can only provide access to
information held by the Council. In your original request you asked for
information regarding revenue generated, which has now been provided. It
should be clarified that you have been informed that the surplus revenue
generated is known. Again, any surplus generated, after taking account of
the price reductions and all the associated costs of maintaining the
scheme and associated infrastructure, is reinvested into the Parking Place
Reserve Account (PPRA) to fund wider parking and transport infrastructure
related schemes and projects, in accordance with Section 55 of the Road
Traffic Regulation Act 1984, an will continue to be.

We are unable to provide additional comment or opinion on either the
information provided or statements made by Councillors, as this
information is not held for the purposes of Section 1(4) of the Freedom of
Information Act.

We would suggest that you contact the Councillor directly for information
held by him regarding comments he has made. For your convenience, his
contact details are provided below:

Cllr Danny Chalkley
Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Transport
Westminster City Council
64 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QP
Email: [email address]
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Daly

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