BARNET Council is being urged to support a fair parking policy that could ease the burden on shops and businesses in the borough.

The Federation Of Small Businesses wrote to the leader of the council Richard Cornelius last week asking the authority to consider adopting its Parking Charter For London.

The charter comprising of eight points states that more information should be disclosed on parking tickets and that more leniency should be given to businesses when they are loading and unloading vehicles.

It also states that councils should not regard parking regulations and the subsequent income generation from parking fines as a means of raising revenue.

Laurie Payne, FSB spokesman for Barnet, said: “The federation has urged London’s councils to think about the damage that poor parking policies are having on the small business community.”

Yogesh Navaneetham, 31, who owns Barnet PC Services, said: “I travel around the borough to visit customers and I get very frustrated with the parking limitations.”

Mr Navaneetham, of Meadway, High Barnet, thinks business owners who travel around the borough should be able to make a one-off payment each month.

He said: “I’ve noticed that a lot of parking machines have been removed meaning that you have to text or call to pay for parking. This can be a real inconvenience to me, especially when I’m visiting a lot of customers in one day. It also means I have to pay for the call or text too.”

The request by the FSB comes after a recent survey highlighted that 64 per cent of businesses said that parking increases were having a negative impact on their business.

Mr Richard Cornelius, said: “We are always concerned about the impact of parking charges on business. We have introduced pre-paid scratchcards to be available for shoppers in time for Christmas trading.

“Traders will be able to buy scratch cards in bulk if they wish which they can then pass on to customers.”

Barnet News