00:00joining me. It's a very simple question. What the hell is going on?
00:04Yeah, I'm almost tempted to say what the hell just happened, but I'm much happier talking about
00:08Eurovision. It's much happier. Oh, not again. I mean, us poor motorists every time. Wouldn't
00:15it be lovely? I love coming on GB News. It'd be lovely to hear from the government saying,
00:20we're going to do something for motorists, but no, bash, bash, bash every time. And this is,
00:26frankly, ridiculous. I mean, they're trying to encourage people to get back into town centres,
00:31to get out there, to go shopping, to support businesses. And yet, if we stay for a little
00:36bit longer than we anticipated, and we haven't paid the right amount for the parking, we're going to
00:41get stung with a fine that, as you quite rightly said, is greater than somebody committing criminal
00:47damage. This is criminal damage, as far as I'm concerned, as far as what the government's doing
00:51to motorists. Exactly. As I understand it at present, parking tickets issued by councils
00:56are capped at £60 or £70 outside of London, depending on the category of fine. And most
01:01councils will offer you, you know, if you pay up quicker, you'll get a lower fine. But the
01:07Department of Transport is not ruling out increasing that to more than £120 for local
01:13authorities outside of London. And this is coming from the Local Government Association and the
01:19British Parking Association. Now, Steve, we're reassured constantly that there isn't a war on
01:23the motorists. But this does seem to be like motorists are being forced to pay for everything
01:28that local councils are doing wrong. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And there most
01:32definitely does seem to be a war on the motorists, whether it's congestion charges that are supposed
01:38to reduce congestion in town centres, and it certainly doesn't, to parking permits, every single
01:45opportunity to just squeeze a little bit more cash out of the motorists. These are law-abiding
01:50citizens, people who might just, as I say, overstay their parking by 10 or 15 minutes because they're
01:57doing something, they're supporting a local business. Yeah, they're going to be stung once
02:01again. And, you know, frankly, maybe we should take a leaf out of the French book and just start
02:06blockading things or whatever. You know, we take it on the chin a little bit too much as motorists,
02:12and maybe we shouldn't. Unfortunately, we've got a little while before we can take it out of the
02:16ballot box. Well, actually, yeah, Steve, actually that's a very good point. The French would be up
02:19in arms of having a riot and going on strike, wouldn't they, about this? But we're terribly
02:22British and we go, OK, right, OK, well, let's just pay up. But I mean, this is basically, I mean,
02:27we know that many, many local councils have not handled their budgets well in any way, shape or form.
02:33We've got several bankrupt councils around the country at the moment. So this is just, it's nothing to do
02:39with a green issue of reducing pollution or reducing traffic flow. It's all about making money,
02:47isn't it? Yeah, it's what you said, bad budget management. You know, if some of these councils
02:51manage their budgets better, then they wouldn't have to go looking for extra cash and normally
02:56from the motorists. Yeah, maybe we do need it. And I should have to say this, and it may be
03:01controversial. Maybe we need our own Elon Musk to go in there and get rid of the waste, save the cash
03:06that is being thrown down the drain in local councils on silly little programs because they
03:12could just do that, waste money and then go to the motorist and say, we're going to charge you a
03:15little bit more now for five minutes over staying in your parking. It's just not good enough and
03:21frankly not fair. You know, let's say the fact that I could be a shoplifter or I could tear the
03:26wing mirror off a car, not that I would obviously, but I'm going to find less than if I stay 15 minutes
03:32too long in a parking space. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And obviously it's very easy
03:36to target someone who's parked sort of like, you know, and not pay for the full amount because
03:41they're maybe two minutes over the limit or something. But meanwhile, we're letting shoplifters,
03:44I mean, proper criminals going to shops and walk out with, you know, 200, 300, 400, 500 pounds
03:50of goods and we're not doing anything about it. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I mean,
03:54everybody's blood will be boiling at this. It's absolutely outrageous. Wouldn't it be great
03:59if local councils say, come to your town centres, park for free, come and use the shops.
04:05You know, we all want to do that. We want to support local businesses, but it's certainly
04:10where I live in the neck of the woods where I am. People are frightened to go and park for fear of
04:14getting a big ticket and people do just pay it. I mean, I would always argue the toss just to try
04:19and delay the payment and make it awkward for people. But, you know, you get the thing through.
04:24It's very formal. For a lot of people, it's very worrying. They feel like criminals and all they've
04:28done is just outstay their welcome truce in the car park. But, you know, let's put it this way.
04:34It's certainly not a vote winner. We've just had the local council elections, haven't we, in many
04:38places. So no surprise. The bad news comes after that. Yeah. Well, yeah. Timing. It's all in the
04:43timing. Steve, thank you so much. That's that motoring journalist Steve.
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