Topic: Question from the other forum

[Sector9]

Posted by Bazza...

I had to pop into town on my way home from work today, so I parked in the main car park and wandered over to pay my 40p. There I was waiting for my ticket to print and having a general nose around when into the car park swung the illustrious Councillor Hawker.. he promptly parked his car, hoisted himself out and marched off into Banana Blues without even a sideways glance at the ticket machine.
I have two questions which concern me somewhat..

Question 1: Are councillors exempt from the car parking charges in town? 
Question 2: What on earth would he be doing going into Banana Blues - he has no hair?

[Al]

I doubt they are, but hey, I never pay either.

[Mike Hawkins]

Posted by Bazza...

Question 1: Are councillors exempt from the car parking charges in town? 
Question 2: What on earth would he be doing going into Banana Blues - he has no hair?

Q1- No, they are not.
Q2- He was probably getting change for the car park machine. PS: He does have hair!

[Mike Hawkins]

Posted by Bazza...

Question 1: Are councillors exempt from the car parking charges in town? 
Question 2: What on earth would he be doing going into Banana Blues - he has no hair?

Q1- No, they are not.
Q2- He was probably getting change for the car park machine. PS: He does have hair!

I may have got the answer to Q1 wrong (or my answer is incomplete).

According to Cllr. Cuthbert Murray on his"Communityforum": "No councillor is above paying for parking in council car parks ! As Unitary councillors we are issued with parking permits , which can be used for free parking only and I stress when we are on offical council buisness only."

However, this answer raises more questions:

1. Why are Unitiary Councillor given parking permits (which may easily be abused"?

Councillors may rightly claim legitimate expenses, as do many other people. Why do they not merely pay to park, and then submit a travel/parking claim (with justification for being parked)?

2. According to Cllr. C-M, these permits are for "official council business". Who decides what is "official council business"? Do the cllrs. have to prove to enforcement officers (EO) that they have parked on official business, or can they merely claim to be so, and then it is up to the EO to prove otherwise? Not a satisfactory state of affairs.

[baldy]

Bazza has asked some good questions, which I am happy to answer.
 
I always get the WHN delivered quite quickly, but if I am in Mike's shop early on a Tuesday I'll pick up a WHN to have the earliest possible look inside the latest issue.
 
All Wiltshire Councillors are issued with parking permits which enable them to use council car parks for strictly council purposes only.
 
I had no business at all in the High Street except to see Mike briefly and to discuss whether there are any issues arising from the latest issue of WHN that affect us as councillors.
 
I often talk to other councillors to discuss council issues .... not least to see if we can think of ways to deal with issues through either Westbury Town Council or Wiltshire Council.
 
On this occasion, to my surprise, there were no new issues at all to discuss .... so I went straight home.
 
There is no strict definition of "council business", but I would expect it to include meeting with other councillors to discuss town issues and the possibility of town issues.
 
As I was not on any other business, I did not need to pay anything.
 
I have seen the same questions pop up in other parts of Wiltshire, especially Salisbury, when residents start emailing every councillor asking why Salisbury councillors seem to park for free in council car parks. As far as I am aware, the councillors are not on shopping trips but are actually visting nearby council offices to meet with other councillors or council officers.

[Shizzy]

A long winded way to say that picking up a copy of White Horse News is council business.

I would disagree.

[baldy]

A long winded way to say that picking up a copy of White Horse News is council business.

I would disagree.

 
I realise that the chips on your shoulder are distracting you from the relevant issues, but you've simply disregarded the fact that councillors talking about anything at all connected to the council - even sources of information about relevant issues - is ordinary local division council business for local division councillors.
 
This is simply a non-story with maybe a few cynics and those with chips on their shoulders hoping to be able to twist this non-story into something more than just idle gossip.

[Shizzy]

I agree that you could park for free at any time of the day and argue that you may bump into someone who wants to talk to you about council stuff. It's not really in the spirit though.

I would have thought the exemption was for pre-arranged council commitments.

[baldy]

I agree that you could park for free at any time of the day and argue that you may bump into someone who wants to talk to you about council stuff. It's not really in the spirit though.

I would have thought the exemption was for pre-arranged council commitments.

But I did not say that I "may bump into someone".
 
I was specifically going to where I expected to find another councillor.
 
Whether I had "pre-arranged" a meeting or hoped to have a meeting by turning up when I happened to have a free moment is simply a matter of organisation - it does not change the reality that meeting with other councillors to discuss council issues is council business (it's what we do - a lot of the time), whether you or anyone else likes it or not.
 
I thought it would be helpful to explain what happened.
 
You are now being pedantic. This whole conversation is starting to get silly and pointless because all you really want is to try to catch me out.

[Mike Hawkins]

I understand Russell's reply, but still feel that it would be better if councillors who did park on Council business merely paid for, and then claimed back as a legitimate expense, parking charges.

But. no big deal unless they are parked for more than the hour!

[charlie finbow]

I agree Mike, no big deal.   They are legitimately allowed to park on council business, we both know when 2 or more councillors meet then town business will be discussed whether its in Banana Blues, the pub or anywhere else.

[Farmer_Geddon]

If a Councillor was to be issued with a parking fine in this type of situation, what happens then?

[charlie finbow]

I received a parking fine when I was a Councillor.   My own fault the meeting over-ran the time I had bought on the ticket.   Not by much but enough to fall foul of the Warden.   No worries I paid the £16 myself and accepted I was a prat.   As Town Councillors we did not have the luxury of a parking permit.

[Mike Hawkins]

If a Councillor was to be issued with a parking fine in this type of situation, what happens then?

Unlikely to happen if he is displaying his Wiltshire Council permit. If he was not displaying, I presume the penalty would stand, as it would do for any of us who paid to park but did not display the ticket.

[Farmer_Geddon]

If a Councillor was to be issued with a parking fine in this type of situation, what happens then?

Unlikely to happen if he is displaying his Wiltshire Council permit. If he was not displaying, I presume the penalty would stand, as it would do for any of us who paid to park but did not display the ticket.

Thanks Mike, I hadn't considered permits and was curious how a ticket would be 'written off'.