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Motorcycle Parking
M Laurent made this Freedom of Information request to Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The request was successful.
From: M Laurent
20 August 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am trying to understand the reasons why the Council has
introduced motorcycle parking bays specifically for residents and
others specifically for visitors.
The residents' bays look constantly empty, so I can only assume
that they are not popular, either because of the charge imposed by
yourselves to use them, or the security devices that motorcyclists
don't find practical.
The visitors' bays, on the other hand, are constantly over-crowded,
which makes it almost impossible for a motorcyclist visiting the
borough to park their motorcycle.
I have myself refrained from coming to your borough because it is
simply impossible to park my scooter without driving around for a
minimum of 20 minutes to find a space. And when I am lucky enough
to find a space, I find my bike damaged by other motorcyclists
trying to squeeze their motorcycles in tiny spaces due to the
visitor bays being over-crowded.
Before you introduced the residents only bays, it was fairly easy
to park in your borough, but since then, it is just a complete
nightmare, because the residents' bays (which were previously used
by all motorcyclists, whether residents or not) are hardly being
used.
My questions are as follows:-
1. What are the reasons for introducing residents only motorcycle
parking bays?
2. What studies or surveys did you actually carry out that made you
decide to introduce residents only motorcycle parking bays? Please
provide copies of any surveys/studies that you carried out.
3. Have you actually consulted the UK motorcyclist community before
introducing the residents only motorcycle parking bays, to find out
their views on the issue? If so, who have you actually consulted
(e.g. BMF, MAG, No To Bike Parking Tax group,
MotorcycleParking.com, your own residents etc)?
4. Since the introduction of residents only motorcycle parking
bays, have you actually increased the motorcycle parking capacity
for visitors? If so, where and how?
5. Have you recently carried out a study or survey about motorcycle
bays occupancy, for both resident bays and visitor bays? If so, can
you please provide a copy of such study/survey.
6. How many complaints, if any, (whether emails, letters, phone
calls etc) has the Council received with regards to the lack of
motorcycle parking spaces for visitors in the past 12 months and
what has been done to address the issues raised?
7. What are the plans with regards to motorcycle parking in your
borough for the next 12 months? Are you considering increasing
parking capacity for visitors, if so how, removing the unused
residents only bays etc?
8. Have you conducted a survey/study to find out the views of the
motorcyclist community with regards to the introduction of the
security devices present in residents' bays? What made you decide
to install this specific model of security devices (which proves to
be highly unpopular) and not another? Please provide a copy of any
survey/study and advise who was consulted.
9. Finally, please advise whether you are considering to introduce
a motorcycle parking tax, like Westminster City Council have done,
which has obviously been the subject of massive opposition with
protests organised every month by the No To Bike Parking Tax
campaign, comprising over 6,000 members, thousands of objections
submitted by bikers and their supporters to the charging scheme,
and Westminster City Council being shortly taken to court by the
campaign.
Yours faithfully,
M Laurent
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
21 August 2009
Dear Sir/Madam
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REF: 2009-480
I am writing to confirm that we received your information request on 20
August 2009. For your information and future communications your request
has been allocated the reference number FOI2009-480. Please quote this
reference in any future correspondence.
We will consider your request and respond in accordance with the
requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Our duty is to
respond promptly or at least within 20 working days.
Yours faithfully
Robin
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Tel: 020 7938 8226
Web: [1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk
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http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
18 September 2009
Dear Sir/Madam
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REF: 2009-480
I am responding to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
which we received on 20 August 2009 for information held by the Council.
You requested the following information:
1. What are the reasons for introducing residents only motorcycle parking
bays?
The rationale for introducing the scheme is explained in the in the March
2005 Key Decision Report (KDR), which can be found on the Council's web
site. I have included a link to this report and more recent reports which
explain the project history to-date.
[1]Link to March 2005 Key Decision Report [2]Link to June 2006 Key
Decision Report [3]Link to June 2007 Key Decision Report [4]Link to
January 2008 Key Decision Report
2. What studies or surveys did you actually carry out that made you decide
to introduce residents only motorcycle parking bays? Please provide copies
of any surveys/studies that you carried out.
Information on the studies we undertook is contained in the March 2005 Key
Decision Report.
3. Have you actually consulted the UK motorcyclist community before
introducing the resident's only motorcycle parking bays, to find out their
views on the issue? If so, who have you actually consulted (e.g. BMF, MAG,
No To Bike Parking Tax group, MotorcycleParking.com, your own residents
etc)?
We consulted the borough's Residents' Panel, details are contained within
the March 2005 KDR
We also consulted representatives from motorcycle action groups including
the British Motorcycle Foundation (BMF), the Motorcycle Industry
Federation (MIF) and the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) who indicated broad
support for the proposals.
In October 2006 we sent a press release to the "trade press" (including
"Motorcycle News", "Motorcycle Rider", the Motorcycle Action Group's "The
Road" and motorcyclenews.com. We had no adverse reaction.
4. Since the introduction of residents only motorcycle parking bays, have
you actually increased the motorcycle parking capacity for visitors? If
so, where and how?
Before resident only bays we had 1,590 free parking spaces for motorcycles
(some of which would have been used by residents). At our introduction of
960 permit spaces for residents' motorcycles we kept 1,218 free spaces.
Since then we have added a further 150 free spaces, a total of 1,368 free
parking spaces. So, we have retained 86 percent of the previous free
spaces, while adding 960 new spaces for residents, freeing up some of the
visitor spaces previously used by residents.
I have attached a list of current visitor bay locations, as requested.
5. Have you recently carried out a study or survey about motorcycle bays
occupancy, for both resident bays and visitor bays? If so, can you please
provide a copy of such study/survey.
We have recently undertaken a motorcycle parking survey. The results are
currently being collated and will shortly be reported to the Cabinet
Member for Transportation, Environment and Leisure.
6. How many complaints, if any, (whether emails, letters, phone calls etc)
has the Council received with regards to the lack of motorcycle parking
spaces for visitors in the past 12 months and what has been done to
address the issues raised?
It is difficult to give an exact number as we do not log all phone calls,
however my records show that in the last 12 months we have received 9
letters and 17 emails regarding visitor parking provision for motorcycles.
In response we have agreed to reinstate free visitor parking in Old Church
Street and provide a new free visitor bay in Old Court Place. We have also
relocated a few bays to more convenient locations.
We are aware that the free bays are well used and in many areas the
resident's bays are underused. This is because we have given our residents
three choices when parking their motorcycle. They can choose to 1) park in
a free bay, or 2) purchase a permit and park in a motorcycle bay, or they
can 3) purchase a combined permit to park in a residents shared use bay
and the motorcycle bays. At this time the majority of residents are
choosing to purchase the combined permit.
7. What are the plans with regards to motorcycle parking in your borough
for the next 12 months? Are you considering increasing parking capacity
for visitors, if so how, removing the unused residents only bays etc?
In the next 12 months we are planning to address the under provision of
visitor parking spaces (in areas on high demand) by developing a programme
of either extending existing bays or providing new bays, where there is
space to do so.
It is difficult to anticipate what future changes will be made, whilst the
outcome of the western extension of TfL's Congestion Charging Zone is
unknown. However, we will continue to response to concerns raised by
residents and the general public and make minor amendments to the location
or size of individual bays as necessary.
8. Have you conducted a survey/study to find out the views of the
motorcyclist community with regards to the introduction of the security
devices present in residents' bays? What made you decide to install this
specific model of security devices (which proves to be highly unpopular)
and not another? Please provide a copy of any survey/study and advise who
was consulted.
The results of our studies can be found in the March 2005 and June 2006
Key Decision reports.
9. Finally, please advise whether you are considering to introduce a
motorcycle parking tax, like Westminster City Council have done, which has
obviously been the subject of massive opposition with protests organised
every month by the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, comprising over 6,000
members, thousands of objections submitted by bikers and their supporters
to the charging scheme, and Westminster City Council being shortly taken
to court by the campaign.
Local Authorities do not levy tax, however they can introduce parking
charges. At this time, the Royal Borough of Kennington and Chelsea have no
plans to introduce compulsory charges for visitors to park motorcycles.
Copyright
Please note, all material provided by the Royal Borough of Kensington and
Chelsea in response to your request for information is for your personal,
non-commercial use. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea reserves
all rights in the copyright of the information provided. Any unauthorised
copying or adaptation of the information without express written
confirmation from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will
constitute an infringement of copyright. Any intention to re-use this
information commercially will require consent. Please forward any requests
for re-use of information to the FOI officer ([5][RBKC request email]).
Complaints
I trust this has satisfied your request. Should you be unhappy with the
handling of your request, the Council has an internal complaints process
for handling FOI Act complaints. Complaints are reviewed by the Town Clerk
and Chief Executive or his nominee. A form is available from our website
to lodge your complaint [6]Freedom of Information Complaint Form. Please
contact us if you do not have website access and we can provide you with a
copy of the form.
Following this review, should you still be unhappy with how your
information request has been handled, you have a further right to appeal
to the Information Commissioner who is responsible for ensuring compliance
with the FOI Act.
Yours faithfully
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Tel: 020 7938 8226
Web: [7]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk
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References
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1. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
2. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
3. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
4. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/howwegovern/keyde...
5. mailto:[RBKC request email]
mailto:[RBKC request email]
6. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
7. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
From: M Laurent
20 September 2009
Dear Mr Yu,
First of all, may I thank you for your detailed response to my FOI
request regarding motorcycle parking in your Borough.
Based on your response, I note that prior to the introduction of
residents only motorcycle bays, there were 1,590 free motorcycle
spaces in the Borough. Now, with 960 spaces for resident
motorcyclists only together with the new visitor bays that you may
have introduced in the last few years, there are 1,218 free spaces
for visitors. This represents a decrease in the number of free
spaces of 372 or 23%.
While the Council has reduced the number of free parking spaces for
motorcyclists, it is noted (and you seem to agree with me) that the
take up of the residents only spaces is very low. Therefore,
motorcyclists visiting your Borough have had to cope with a reduced
number of spaces by 23%, while the number of motorcyclists in
London has been increasing over the past few years, following the
introduction of the congestion charge and the high cost of the
public transport.
I can now understand why it is almost impossible, as a motorcyclist
visiting your Borough, to park. This is purely because the Council
has reduced the number of free motorcycle parking spaces, while
introducing largely unused residents only spaces and the overall
number of motorcyclists in London rising.
In the light of the above, can you please clarify what the
Council's plans are to address the issue.
I consider this as being a very serious issue and I would like the
Council to address it at its earliest convenience.
Yours faithfully,
M Laurent
From: M Laurent
9 October 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
Can you please advise when I can expect to receive a reply to my
follow up email?
Yours faithfully,
M Laurent
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
13 October 2009
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am chasing a response; you should receive one within the next few days.
Yours faithfully
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
Room N108, First Floor, KTH
Tel: 020 7938 8226
[1]ISD on the Intranet
show quoted sections
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
14 October 2009
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am responding to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
which we received on 20 September 2009 for information held by the
Council.
In reply to your question, how do we intend to address the issue of
increasing demand for visitor parking, I would refer you to my previous
response.
In the next 12 months we are planning to address the under provision of
visitor parking spaces (in areas of high demand) by developing a programme
of either extending existing bays or providing new bays, where there is
space to do so.
It is difficult to anticipate what future changes will be made to the
resident's motorcycle parking scheme, while the possible removal of the
western extension to TfL's Congestion Charging Zone is unknown. The
removal of the charging zone would have a significant effect on parking
provision, placing even greater stress on parking space in some parts of
the borough. The rapid increase in motorcycle ownership in central London
is also partly attributed to the congestion charge (since motorcycles are
exempt from the charge). However, in the meantime we will continue to
respond to concerns raised by residents and the general public and make
minor amendments to the location or size of individual bays as necessary.
Yours sincerely
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Tel: 020 7938 8226
Web: [1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk
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