Car Parking up again

bapiow · Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

ISLAND resident parking permits are set to rise from £75 to £200 if budget proposals by the Isle of Wight Council are given the green light.
Discounted residents parking permits for pensioners, which currently cost £50, are set to be scrapped, as well as free parking for low emission vehicles.
Pensioners and people with greener vehicles will be required to buy the new standard permits, costing £200.
Other parking measures include a ten per cent planned increase in the cost of parking tickets and the cost of a named car park permit more than doubling from £125 to £300.
• A full report on the ruling Conservative’s budget proposals for this year will appear in the Friday, February 5, County Press.

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 116

It's quite laughable if it wasn't so serious. IOW Council - what is it they call themselves - The GREEN council - ugh what a joke!

I think that the Council think that they have all Islanders over a barrel and that they will just cough up the extra money without fuss. Well there is one person here who won't be paying. I have never bought one of the Council permits yet and don't intend to and certainly not at the highly inflated prices.

I have a low emission car which the Council have encouraged people to buy with their free parking policy as part of their "Green" ethics - so where has the "green" council gone now?

Use buses - what buses? More and more bus routes are being cut or totally cancelled and I can't see another bus company coming onto the Island in a hurry to take over. We only have a bus every two hours - I can't get to work by bus never mind getting home.

Taxi fares are astronomical on the Island and the Taxi firms are wanting to increase them.

Where is it all going to end.

I feel with all these increases then the Council and other "authorities" are going to slowly kill the Island and tourism will take a complete dive.

I think it will be a really sad day for the Island as a whole once these extra charges come into play.

Of course what it needs is for everyone to take a stand and for NO-ONE to buy ANY of the permits but of course this won't happen. I really do feel that it is the only way to make the Council take notice because let's be honest while ever people are daft enough to pay these prices then the Council will just charge whatever they want. Unless we take a stand now then nothing will ever change and costs will continue to rise and the Council will know that they can charge whatever they want as people will just continue to purchase them without a fuss!

And I am also expecting that the Council Rates will increase significantly this year too. Well someone has to pay for all the grit and for the re-filling of the potholes!

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Carisbrooke

Island motorists are complete suckers!!

We pay extortionate amounts of road tax, pay to park and put up with roads that are not much better than dirt tracks.

The majority of Islanders seldom use Mainland roads and yet most of their road tax goes to maintain them. There's enough revenue made out of motorists here on the Island to have decent roads and free street parking.

We need to make a stand and get the Islanders road tax to stay on the Island, and not go into a central pot.

As for buses, we need to be rid of the monopoly that is Southern Vectis and give other firms the chance to provide a service. We lack direct routes from A-B because Vectis are trying to cover too much ground with a single bus, which means extended travel times, and forcing the car to be far more convenient.
Having one bus company trying to cover the whole of the Island is ludicrous and keeps the prices to travel too high.

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 116

Wight Portal I agree with everything you say. It has always amazed me why there is only one bus company on the Island. In most towns there are at least two other bus companies offering competition.

Like the ferries - I don't see how Wightlink and Red Funnel are in competition when they are run to and from different places. Now if there was another ferry company running from Cowes to Southampton, Ryde to Portsmouth and Yarmough to Lymington THEN and ONLY THEN would I say that the two ferry companies had competition but as it is at the moment they can just charge whatever they want as people really don't have that much of a choice!

I just don't know what is happening to the Island at all but I do think people should wake up before there isn't an Island left.

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Carisbrooke

Actually it's not competition we need, it's just choice. Having other firms running buses would actually do Vectis the power of good.

As it stands at the moment they are trying to service the whole Island. Probably up to 80% of that service is not profitable, how many packed buses have you seen? This means that they rely on 20% to cover their overheads and give them a profit. If they were to give away the 80% to another firm or firms, they could reduce their fleet, reduce their fares, which will in turn increase their profits. The other firms will still make a living out of Vectis' non profit making services, it is the amount of profit needed by Vectis that keeps prices high.

I actually got into a debate on the Council forum with a representative from Southern Vectis last year on this very subject. He was quite a regular on that forum answering questions from other members about pricing and service etc, but as soon as I posted something similar to the above he vanished never to post again. Maybe I struck a nerve.

What can be done about the ferries?
Not a lot. As consumers we see it as the biggest rip off ever. Unfortunately unlike a bus service you can't just go out and buy a ferry and start, not unless you have a large bank roll behind you. Both Red Funnel and Wightlink are the tax loss services for their bigger concerns. What they charge probably only covers the running costs of the service they provide.
Like the buses they run the majority of the time empty. The overheads are the same, but the fares have to be high to compensate.
It's the old rock and hard place syndrome, they can only reduce fares if they have more users, and they will only get more users if they become cheaper.

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 116

Wight Portal - yes it is the choices we need you are quite right. I would dearly love to use the bus service but as Southern Vectis only run a bus every two hours I can neither get to work nor get back home - well I suppose I could if I wanted to catch a bus into work at quarter to 8 and then catch a bus back home at nearly twenty to seven!!!! (My hours of work being 9 till 5).

Mind you if the Council do decide to stop the free parking for low emission cars the I will most probably have to get into Newport very early just to try and find somewhere to park on the street somewhere - well that's of course if all street parking isn't going to be mandatory permit parking!

Can't win either way really!

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Carisbrooke

Unfortunately it is easier for local authorities to get money out of Joe Public than to lobby Parliament harder for more funds. As I said in an earlier post, there's enough money being collected through road tax to give free street parking to everyone, it's just that the money doesn't stay here.

Andrew Turner's not upto much now that the ferry firms have been let off the hook by the watchdog. Let's fill his in box with requests for him to get our road tax spent on the Island.