And another triumph for Westminster!

[ffutures]

As regular readers will know, Westminster City Council have been saying for ages that they're going to bring in parking charges for motorbikes, but were rather coy about the details.

I got to my bike this evening to find a card saying that they start on 4th August in some areas, in all areas by the 18th. Charges are £1.50 a day, £5 a week, £150 a year. They also say that if you register for the pay by phone "service" by 3rd August you won't have to pay parking charges in August.

Which would be fine, except that what I want to do is pay a year up front, and do so by cheque. And needless to say they still aren't set up to take money, and I suspect won't be until August. I also got the impression that nobody there is capable of handling the idea of a motorist of any sort who doesn't own a mobile phone and isn't happy to run up loads of credit card payments.

I would rather like to pay enough in advance that my cheque will clear by the time the charges are enforced. The annoying part of this is that I can probably (but not definitely) stay out of the charging areas until the 18th, but doing so will be a pain in the arse.

I'm really hoping that at some point someone will tell me that they are not prepared to take a cheque. I will then offer to pay cash (I'm sure my bank will give me 150 quid in small change if I ask nicely), and if not ask them to confirm in writing that they are not prepared to take my money. Watch the crap hit the fan...

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Watch out for legal tender limits for small change.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I wasn't terribly serious about that one.

[armb.livejournal.com]

> I wasn't terribly serious about that one.

The "legal tender" thing (AIUI) only applies to settlement of a debt that already exists, not to advance payments, so it wouldn't necessarily matter even if you were serious.

(http://www.royalmint.gov.uk/Corporate/BritishCoinage/LegalTenderGuidelines.aspx says pound coins are legal tender for any amount, which would probably be enough if you did want to make a point.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Good to know.

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Sounds stupid to not have alternate means of payment. I get the impression that the U.K. (or maybe just London) is even more of a mobile phone culture than the U.S.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think it'll happen, they're just screwed up at present. My brother in law pays for a parking space for his car, I'm pretty sure he just writes a cheque once a year.