Merton Council wants to introduce new parking charges in Wimbledon and Raynes Park.
The council will finalise this decision at a Cabinet meeting on the 18th January, and the new charges, which will cost local residents hundreds of pounds more per year in parking fees, would come into effect in April.
In November, Conservative councillors presented our petition from residents calling on the Council to reconsider these new charges, and then in December we proposed a series of measures which included scrapping this new tax, or at least halting it until January 2022. We also wanted the council to come up with new measures to prevent those on low incomes, the elderly and the disabled from being unfairly penalised by the proposals. Sadly, Labour councillors voted the new tax through without taking any measures to mitigate the effects on the most vulnerable in our borough.
We think we need new ideas to combat the pollution crisis in Merton. It is obvious from the previous parking charges tax hike that taxing parked cars does not lead to improvements in air quality. It was deeply disappointing therefore that Merton Labour did not want to work with us to reduce pollution in Merton, and find alternative sensible solutions to improve air quality in the borough.
We can still stop these charges being introduced.
If you want to stop Merton Council hitting local residents with a new tax during the Covid-19 pandemic then we need you to sign our petition and email the leader of the council [email protected] to tell him you don’t support Labour’s latest tax on motorists.
Please also CC [email protected] into your email so we can put pressure on the Labour administration to stop these unfair and unwanted parking charges from being introduced.
UPDATE 18/01/2021: After Merton Labour decided to introduce the charges we have begun the process of referring this terrible decision to the Overview and Scrutiny and Scrutiny Commission. Please continue to express your opposition to this policy to the Council by emailing the Council leader.
UPDATE 23/09/2021: Following our sustained campaign Merton Labour have announced they will be halting this tax, however, we still need to keep up the pressure to ensure it never returns. Please continue sharing our petition so we can show the strength of feeling among residents against these unfair charges.