PARKING METERS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27796, 22 October 1955, Page 11

PARKING METERS

Resistance In Britain

(From the London Corre “The Press”)

* LONDON, Oct. 15. Parking meters have been introduced into several New .Zealand cities with marked success for the local authority. There were complaints from the public, but nothing to match the combined front that is being put up by motoring organisations in London and Britain generally against the introduction of parking meters to this country. The Road Traffic Bill, if it goes through the House unchanged, will empower local authorities to install meters. A combined press conference by the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association, and the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, put the position boldly. It was said that parking meters were “an insidious attempt to get more money out of the car owners’ pockets without doing anything to alleviate lack of parking space.” As a car owner under British taxes. I can sympathise with the motoring organisations. The British motorists are the most taxed in the world, paying £400,r00.000 a year, and they probably get less for their money than anywhere else. Government advisers have already reported that off-

street parking is the only answer to .Britain s congestion problems, but they have been ignored. The motoring organisations are determined to battle until the proposals aie “sunk without trace.” It would be no surprise to see the Road Traffic Bill ’amended.