Just to add some cultural context to this:
This refers to what is known as ‘on-street’ parking. i.e. you are parking on a public road that is outside your house, not your own land or garage. We are much, much more densley populated than the US, so many city and suburban houses litterally have their front door onto what you would call the ‘sidewalk’. These houses have no parking so people just park in the street.
The residents in this scheme are actually quite lucky. For five of the last six years I lived in a city centre apartment with one carpark bay in the basement but a two car family. There was extensive parking available on the street outside but it was all on meters. They wouldn’t let residents buy permits to park outside their own homes as per this scheme described, as there was more revenue to be had from visitors to the city centre who were willing to pay for the space by the hour. We got a lot of tickets!
‘ring fenced’ in English English (as opposed to the American English that y’all speak) means a protected revenue stream allocated for a specific purpose.
I suspect that one thing that is identical on both sides of the pond is that when a public official utters that revenue is ring fenced he is lying! Peter will be robbed to pay Paul somewhere down the line.
I appreciate your perspective, thanks. I think that the mere fact that in your case you were not even allowed to buy permits for street parking exposes the lie of “it’s about the environment” and other such smokescreens.
It’s all about the money, plain and simple.
And Paul will vote for more of it.
Sometimes called “walled city.”
One question.
Here in the United States, such a move by a city council would lead to calls for a recall election to remove the council and replace them with office holders who would be expected to reverse the offending policies/laws/etc. We have this power at the state and local level because they are written into the constitutions of these political entities.
Is there a similar provision in English law to remove officials who offend public sensibilities?
(BTW, the recall process is not easy due to the fairly strict processes concerning the collection and validation of signatures needed to place the matter before the voters in a special election. Normally, a slate of replacement candidates is up for election at the same time to ensure continuity of leadership should the recall election succeed. The most notable recent example was the recall of Governor Gray in California and his replacement by Arnold Schwarzenegger (sp), aka “The Terminator.” We do not have this power at the federal level because there is no provision for it in the U.S. Constitution. The only way we can remove a federal office holder is impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.)