West End stars join protest against Westminster’s new parking charges

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West End stars join protest against Westminster’s new parking charges

By Westminster Labour ⋅ October 25, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
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Tom Conti, Dame Janet Suzman, Jenny Seagrove, Linda Bellingham, Bill Paterson, Roger Lloyd Pack and other stars of stage and screen have joined the huge wave of opposition to Westminster City Council’s plans to introduce evening and Sunday parking charges of up to £4.80p an hour in the West End by signing a massive 7,700 name petition to be presented to the Council at its meeting on 2nd November.

The petition reads;

“We the undersigned, call upon Westminster City Council to abolish the new parking regulations within its borough, as the economic effect on the local business infrastructure will be catastrophic and will in effect lead to job losses due to the loss of revenue.

In addition this will also severely compromise the safety of all night workers by forcing them (due to the extortionate parking fees proposed) to commute at unsociable hours by public transport which has proved in the past to be extremely dangerous, also for most this is not an option due to poor transport links in the early hours.”

Comments made on the online petition include;

Tom Conti
“In a time of such financial hardship for so many people, this action by Westminster Council that will harm so many businesses and therefore those who work in them, is criminally irresponsible.”

Dame Janet Suzman
“Sad that a London Borough bearing such an illustrious name should contemplate such a crassly Philistine policy. Or is greedy the word?”

Jenny Seagrove
“I work as an actor in the West End, and increased parking rates will make it impossible financially for some of my colleagues to accept jobs in London. Or they will be forced to take public transport at antisocial hours and be open to harrassment – in the case of young single women. It is also another nail in the coffin of ever decreasing theatre attendance – another expense for the theatregoer to have to deal with. Please help us and don’t implement these charges.”

Linda Bellingham
“Of course councils need money but they also need communities and entertainment. Please reconsider these parking issues not just for safety and convenience reasons but for the good of our wonderful city. The West End is a huge draw to tourists not just from abroad but within the UK. Let us encourage families and older citizens to our theatres and galleries and make the cost at least a little less and also the worry of time and meters and fear of a ticket.”

Bill Paterson
“This must be one of the greediest and self-defeating actions even Westminster Council has ever contemplated. Live theatre and its huge audiences are one of the few remaining glories of London’s West End. Moving parking charges into the evening will decimate both. We must fight this on all fronts.”

Roger Lloyd Pack
“This feels like an iniquitous and punitive strategy to extract money from an already beleaguered profession, also from a public who pay high prices anyway to go to a show. Surely it’s a self-defeating policy anyway? All it will do is drive people away from coming into the West End? Everyone will suffer, including Westminster Council.”

Nichola McAuliffe
“Drunkenness and aggression on streets at night, endless road closures at weekends, dirty and dangerous public transport are enough for the west end theatres to combat. Don’t add parking restrictions to the barriers you erect to keep the audiences away.”

Jeremy Child
“Just a profiteering exercise by Westminster Council. It will make getting to work in The West End very difficult for Equity members, and particularly dangerous for female members returning home late at night. It will also damage the West End restaurant trade.”

Barbara Flynn
“Not only will extra chargers affect performers and participants in the entertainment industry (whose wages are already challenging) but the viewing public too and those who wish to use London to socialise in the evenings. London needs people in order to prosper. So London needs to be more attractive not less. Let London breathe.”

Diana Quick
“It will have a catastrophic effect on theatre-going in London’s West End if extended parking charges are introduced. The theatre is one of our main tourist attractions, and you will be compromising the income and safety of hard working theatre practitioners.”

Nickolas Grace
“This could be the death knell for London arts and entertainment in the evenings…”

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, who will be presenting the petition to the Council meeting on 2nd November, said; “It is difficult to find anyone who is in favour of these new parking charges. West End business, theatres, musicians, restaurants, casino workers and churches of every denomination have come out in opposition to these charges. The only people in favour are Conservative Councillors who are whetting their lips at the prospect of an extra £7 million in income.

“This proposal has attracted considerably more bad publicity for the Council since Shirley Porter sold the Council’s three cemeteries for 15p and it has provoked more anger than the ‘Homes for Votes’ scandal when the Conservatives gerrymandered the local election results.”

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