Across the pond

Yesterday was a bad day. Went over early to my youngest daughter’s flat to do a couple of simple jobs. Replace the string pull switch in her bathroom and fix the sticking mortice lock on her front door. Failed on both counts. Could not deal with the maze of wires over my head. Found that the lock was kaput. So had to find an electrician and get a new lock. Too fed up to write a blog.

Today started better. Went early with the electrician and I fitted the new lock while he did the bathroom light. We then both spent half an hour looking for the keys to the new lock which I had unaccountably lost. Gave up. But the electrician spotted them hanging from a branch of the potted plant as he was going out through the door.

While doing-it-myself I was writing today’s blog in my head. It was to be up-beat about something good happening in the world for once. Serge Lourie, the liberal democratic leader of Richmond upon Thames council, is planning some really effective sounding measures which he claims will reduce CO2 emissions by 15 per cent. He is proposing to up the annual cost of parking permits so that those with Jaguars and BMWs will pay three times the standard £100 for the privilege of parking on the street outside their house. And if they have more than one car per household they will have to pay 50 per cent more for any extra permits.

Wonderful, I thought, that in this age of increasing centralisation, Lourie is showing us that a local council leader can still make a difference. And what a contrast to the pussy-footed approach of both Bush and Blair to climate change realities.

By the time I sat down to the keyboard second thoughts were bubbling up. If my own council had introduced such a measure it might have made a difference in my street of nineteenth century terraced housing, where rich and poor have to park on the street.

Richmond is not like that. They have space and not only in Kew Gardens and Hampton Court. The affluent who own most of the worst offending cars mostly live in detached houses with large gardens and big front drives, many capable of taking three or four cars. So the only time the biggest offenders will need parking permits is when they give huge lunch parties during the working week.

I am now confident that Lourie’s 15 per cent figure is an ill-informed guess. Even to make a start at a proper estimate you would need to know who owned the worst offending cars and where they lived. To discover that would require a three-year fully funded research study. And, of course, even after doing that you would still be guessing about whether the extra £200 a year would really change the behaviour of those who were able to shell out £40,000 and upwards for their favoured cars.

Regretfully I am forced to conclude that this as one more example of the erosion of local government in Britain. Parking charges is one of the few revenue raising possibilities left to councils. Which is why there are two parking meter wardens patrolling my street every day. (For comparison it is worth reporting that it is several months since I saw a bobby on the beat in the whole neighbourhood, not just in my street.) The only certain difference this proposal will make is that it will increase Richmond council’s revenue from parking.