Council that scrapped free bike parking in EC investigation

Fresh evidence of plans to scrap free motorcycle parking nationally emerged as the European Commission launched an investigation into the first council to take the step.

The Commission is investigating Westminster City Council – which introduced a charge for motorcycle parking bays in August – over alleged breaches of EU rules on awarding contracts.

It’s claimed the council broke rules by awarding a single firm a ‘UK-wide framework contract’ to handle motorcycle parking charges for any local authority with no opportunity for other companies to bid for the business.

Councils are told they can bypass the usual requirement of inviting bids simply by joining a Westminster-led partnership of seven London authorities called Partnerships in Parking (PiP). 

Campaign group No to the Bike Parking Tax says in a complaint to the EC the contract breaches a directive because it’s ‘of excessive duration and prevents competition’.

Warren Djanogly, chairman of the group, said: “They’ve violated EU procurement laws and tried to establish an open contract that allows any other council to join Westminster and clobber motorcycles all over the place without having to tender in the normal way.”

Along with Westminster, PiP’s members are, Camden, City of London, Islington, Lambeth, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Transport for London, responsible for the capital’s main transport infrastructure.

A European Commission spokesman confirmed in a statement: ‘The Commission has started on November 20 an investigation concerning this issue… For that purpose the Commission has sent a letter to UK government with a two-month deadline for response.’

The statement added: ‘We are in fact-finding situation [with] no conclusions for the moment.’

Westminster City Council refused to comment. A council spokesman ignored an email from MCN and would only repeat “We don’t have a comment for you” when telephoned.  

Find details of the next demo ride at www.notobikeparkingfees.com