Richmond park given a rebuke on parties

The park is a very special place indeed, but it seems not everyone is in agreement on what that means.

The Friends of Richmond Park like it quiet. Very quiet. This time, they were not ranting about cyclists but had a gripe about a party held by Range Rover at the Royal Lower Ballet school. I actually quite agree this was way over the top we should leave deers and runners alone in the dark...  Good that they got their way. Mind you, they hold late night weddings at Pembroke Lodge -the extension disfigured it it to increase the capacity, not something the Friends care about apparently?

Royal Ballet School Range Rover Launch - YouTube

Park Tax

As I was writing earlier (here Sign the petition to keep Richmond park free and there Another petition, for Bushy park) it seems that there will be another place (after it was imposed that it would no longer be free to park in Richmond on Sundays) where you can't escape the Parking tax:

London Royal Parks parking fees approved (on freetopark.co.uk)
I hope Susan Kramer will keep on the fight.

Some think it's a good thing, I view this as NIMBY (see my comment on the post): Parking charges approved for Royal Parks :-).
But overal parking charges in the park are hugely impopular. An unwanted impact is that the Borough will inevitably extend the Sheen CPZ to cover Fife road as it will be used by park-goers instead of the Sheen Gate car park. That's parking tax contagion!

See also my previous posts: Kingston hospital parking and Blatant hypocrisy over parking spaces

richmond, park, parking, richmondtransits.blog

Another petition, for Bushy park

Just got this email from Mich Miller about Bushy park.

Not much to add, except that I still have to figure out why Royal Parks, local and national government have this obsession about taxing down to the individual users, via things as ludicrous as road charging: are we going to have to put coins in lamp posts for street lighting?

In my opinion, there are things to be enjoyed by all that should be financed by the Nation, such as coastlines (read: maintaining flood barriers), nature reserves (Royal Parks), a transportation system that reduces pollution (canals, trains, etc...). And it seems it's always about making one thing more expensive and not the alternative cheaper.

Rip Off Britain?

Could I draw your attention to another petition (mine) against the proposed car parking charges for the deer parks. Mine encompasses Bushy Park as well as Richmond. We are likely to be herded into a new (and I suspect smaller) car park round the new "visitor centre". This will mean having to cross the access road to get onto the grassy park - daangerous for toddlers and dogs. If you would include the link in your blog I would be grateful.

it is: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Deerparkparking

Cheers

Mich Miller

Sign the petition to keep Richmond park free

Probably inspired by Richmond Council's never ending quest to extract more taxes from motorists, the Royal Parks has launched a consultation on whether it should charge for parking.

After free parking on Sunday being removed, the steep increases for Kew Gardens concessions, it's another blow for our purchasing power.

The detailed documents are on Royal Parks' web site:

• Park parking consultation document
• Draft impact assessment

I'm not sure what the real intent is, apart from the stated goal of "encouraging people to travel by public transportation" (which is daft as no busses go to Richmond Park). What is true is that the car parks are full at week ends, especially since they made the one at Pen Ponds about half the size (and tarmac'ed) as before.

The impact of charges, apart from the obvious bite in people's wallet (especially for OAP's), would be:

• Parking congestion around East Sheen, Ham and Roehampton gates, where there's currently no CPZ (of course, this would be a great excuse for Richmond Council to tax us more with a CPZ extension)
• Parents with young children would also find it difficult to travel to the park by public transport

Here are my alternative suggestion:

• Remove the snack food outlets in Pen Ponds, Kingston gate and Broomfield parkings: those vans with German licence plates, complete with their Polish employees, do nothing for the public health, especially as they're powered by noisy and smelly diesel generators.

Go on and sign the Petition to take action against a proposal to charge for car parking in Richmond Park on Number10.gov.uk


Read also:

• Richmond Park Parking Charges Could Cause Chaos For Local (LibDems)
• Drivers' anger at charge for using Richmond Park (Evening Standard)

richmond, park, parking, richmondtransits.blog