Recent news items have highlighted how Britain's parking nightmare has been deliberately made worse by the Government, in an attempt to force drivers out of their cars.
 
Because of the influence of a well-documented network of anti-car pressure groups, the Government has adopted this approach and is progressively making parking more inconvenient and expensive. Transport 2000, a campaign group funded largely by bus companies, has openly stated that if you "take away the parking space at the end of the journey, you take away the car journey."
 
"Some parking restrictions are necessary in congested city centres to ensure that limited space is shared fairly," said the ABD's Nigel Humphries. "But deliberately creating a parking nightmare to stop people from using or even owning cars is a different matter. It's an abuse of power, and a betrayal of the electorate, who have a right to expect their government to make things better, not deliberately worse."
 
There are two main ways in which parking is being curtailed:
 

• Firstly, through changes to planning policy.
   
  At one time new housing and business developments HAD to have adequate off road parking. Now, it's been turned around — developers are forced to have fewer parking spaces than are reasonably needed.
   
  "These restrictive planning laws demonstrate an all-out attack on car ownership, not just use," continued Humphries. "When new flats are built with 0.5 spaces per dwelling, a reduction in car ownership and personal mobility is assumed."
   
  The effects of this insanity are to push cars onto the street, and push development out of towns where restrictions are fewer — encouraging the very car dependency that is supposed to be reduced.
   
  
• Secondly, decriminalised parking enforcement
   
  By encouraging local authorities to operate their own parking schemes for profit, including keeping the money from parking fines, the Government has guaranteed that higher charges and more parking restrictions will spread across the land.
   
  

These two strands — planning and 'decriminalised' parking enforcement — are creating a parking nightmare. Parking spaces at homes and offices should be maximised and on-street restrictions should be fair and reasonable.
 
Humphries concludes

"It's vital that travellers can use the best tool for the job — whether it's a car, a pedal cycle a motorbike or a bus. Increasing parking restrictions and hard-line enforcement simply makes life unpleasant for everyone. People need to be able to travel freely and efficiently — restricting where they can park is not going to achieve this end."