Wetherell Mayfairs Fitnes Properties

As Belstaff prepare to open a new London flagship store on New Bond Street, Bloomberg report that the brand, now owned by Swiss-based Labelux Group GmbH, have agreed to pay a record rent for a large store in London.

Belstaff will pay £3 million in initial rent for a property on 135/137 New Bond Street, according to Savills Plc.

The rent for the 25,000 square-foot (2,323 square-metre) heritage-protected building equates to £840 per square foot. That exceeds the previous record of £670 a square-foot rent that Italian fashion brand Missoni agreed to pay for 138 New Bond Street in February 2011, according to Savills.

"The deal demonstrates the continued expansion northwards of the prime pitch on Bond Street," said Anthony Selwyn, the director at Savills who acted for the landlord.

Rents on Bond Street and London's other main shopping strips in the West End are escalating as retailers compete for the best locations. The district avoided the last recession as the weak pound lifted tourism, while retailers reported a 3.1 per cent increase in sales for last year compared with a 0.1 per cent in U.K. retail sales.

The highest rent on Bond Street is the £965 that jeweller Piaget agreed to pay in December 2009 for their 169 Old Bond Street boutique, a much smaller 3,500 square-foot space.

The Telegraph - Fashion
Click to see the original article

Westminster Council has announced it will scrap a plan to charge for evenings and Sunday parking in the West End.

The new levy of up to £4.40 per hour was to run until midnight, Monday-to-Saturday and on Sunday afternoons.

The move had provoked widespread opposition with protest groups claiming it was aimed at raising revenue and not cutting congestion.

A commission is to be set up by the council to consider new proposals.

The new charges were originally due to come in last December however the scheme was postponed until after the Olympics following a ruling in the High Court.

A coalition of campaigners including night workers, restaurateurs, clergy members and actors forced a judicial review into the plans.
'Criminally irresponsible'

Outgoing council leader Colin Barrow said: "We have listened to Londoners in the interests of the wider economy and will scrap the charging plans.

"We need to think long and hard about how we manage traffic in the West End to allow people to go about their business, but it's clear that these specific proposals did not command public support.

"I also felt after reflecting on this issue, that it was right to act swiftly rather than wait for the election of a new council leader in order to provide clarity for the future."
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

We'll reset our parking policies to focus on common sense measures ”

Lee Rowley Westminster councillor

Councillor Lee Rowley, cabinet member for transportation and parking, said the council would think "radically about how we manage traffic in the West End in the future."

He added: "Our Commission will consider all credible strategies for managing traffic and we'll reset our parking policies to focus on common sense measures that are fair but encourage people to keep to the rules."

BBC London's Transport Correspondent Tom Edwards said businesses, theatres and churches would greet the news with delight.

Richard Dickinson, chief executive of New West End Company representing businesses in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street said he welcomed the decision, saying the council had made a "responsible and commendable" decision that would benefit the West End.

Actors Tom Conti, Linda Bellingham, Bill Paterson and Roger Lloyd-Pack were among those who came out against the effect it would have on the city's Theatreland.

Conti said it was "criminally irresponsible" and last month London Mayor Boris Johnson called the move "completely mad".

The government also criticised the scheme.

Mr Barrow announced his resignation last Friday but insisted it was not connected with the parking row, saying he wanted to "devote more time to other areas" of life.

The BBC Website - Wednesday 18th January 2012
Click to see the orignial article

Westminster Council has scrapped plans for evening and weekend parking charges in the West End, admitting defeat in a political battle that united business leaders, night workers, clergymen and actors against one of the country’s most powerful local authorities.

Critics had claimed the proposals to charge as much as £4.40 an hour for street parking on evenings and Sundays would “destroy” nightlife in London’s foremost entertainment district. Boris Johnson, London mayor, dubbed the scheme “completely mad”.

The Tory council will on Thursday announce it has abandoned the planned charges, days after Colin Barrow, the former hedge fund executive who spearheaded the anti-congestion measures, said he would step down as council leader.

“We’ve been persuaded by many voices that have been raised during this debate that the wider economy, both of the West End and of our neighbours, is just as important as the traffic management considerations on which we based the original decision,” Mr Barrow told the Financial Times.

He had previously argued that tighter parking restrictions were needed to combat traffic gridlock around the West End, while allies claimed opposition was concentrated among a narrow elite of wealthy restaurant and theatre-goers.

But critics, who called the measures a “tax on nightlife”, claimed such a levy would shave £800m off the West End economy and cost 5,000 jobs.

The council will now set up an independent commission, including members of the business community, to come up with alternative solutions to “support business, lessen congestion and improve quality of life for residents”.

Richard Dickinson, chief executive of New West End Company, which represents businesses in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, praised the U-turn.

“They have made a responsible and commendable decision that will ultimately benefit the West End when there is increasing pressure on the business community during these tough economic times.”

The charges had already been put on hold following a High Court ruling last month that gave the go-ahead for a judicial review of the plans.

Mr Barrow’s decision to scrap the scheme altogether comes ahead of the London mayoral election in May, when tensions between Westminster council and Mr Johnson, who is standing for re-election, threatened to embarrass the Tory campaign.

Speaking on Wednesday night, Mr Barrow said the council had a “statutory duty to manage traffic” but added: “What has been made clear to us is that that is only part of the whole picture and the impact of parking and traffic to the wider economy is something we must take into account as well.”

A former senior director at Man Group, the London-based hedge fund manager, Mr Barrow announced last week that he planned to step down in March but denied his departure was connected to the parking dispute.

He warned last night that combating traffic gridlock would remain a challenge for his successor. “The problem of congestion will not go away. The problem of availability of parking spaces will not go away,” he said.

“We need to think long and hard about how we manage traffic in the West End to allow people to go about their business, but it’s clear that these specific proposals did not command public support.

“I felt . . . it was right to act swiftly rather than wait for the election of a new council leader.”

By Andrew Ward
The Financial Times - Wednesday 18th January 2012
Click to see original article

Westminster council was today in turmoil following the shock resignation of the leader responsible for its West End parking charges plan.

The unexpected departure of Colin Barrow comes after a sustained campaign against the "tax on nightlife" that left him isolated against senior politicians, London's biggest businesses and ordinary residents.

The capital's largest local authority faces weeks of uncertainty - at the start of a crucial year for London - as a power struggle starts. Pressure was growing on Mr Barrow's close ally Lee Rowley, the Cabinet member responsible for parking, to quit.

Insiders say the parking charge plan is almost certain to be abandoned for good as the leadership battle pits a "young turk" said to be opposed to the charges against the authority's finance chief.

One senior council figure told the Standard they were mystified and "in shock". He said: "We are leaderless while (Barrow) is a leader without power. It's a very strange thing to do." Political leaders said it was almost inconceivable that whoever was elected the new head of London's most powerful local authority could continue with the scheme.

The proposals would have seen motorists charged up to £4.80 an hour to leave their cars on the streets of the West End in the evenings and on Sunday afternoons. Local Conservative MP Mark Field said: "Given the furore, given the strength of the campaign by the Evening Standard, I would be very surprised if Colin's successor runs along with this."

There is no chance of a successor being chosen for at least six weeks until a group meeting on February 29.
Critics of the parking policy expressed delight at Mr Barrow's abrupt departure and said the charges should be immediately consigned to the political dustbin. Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of Westminster city council's Labour group, said the resignation was "a real victory for West End jobs, businesses and residents".

"For the past six months Westminster Conservatives have refused to listen to common sense and now Colin Barrow has paid the ultimate price for his poor judgment and failure to recognise the damage that his 'nightlife tax' parking charges would do to West End jobs and businesses." The charges were scheduled to come into force on January 9 but have been delayed until after the Olympics by a legal challenge.

The race for the succession began immediately with four leading candidates emerging. They are Cabinet members for street cleaning and City management Ed Argar, who is seen as the candidate most likely to scrap the charges; finance chief Philippa Roe; the Cabinet member for enterprise Brian Connell and Jonathan Glanz, who is responsible for housing.

One local Tory activist said: "We would favour Ed Argar, he is bright, businesslike and much more sensible than the others."

However, Glenys Roberts, the sole Tory councillor openly opposed to the charges, said she would support Ms Roe. She said: "Obviously the last person we need is Lee Rowley who should have resigned along with Colin."

Mr Barrow, 59, who has led Westminster council for four years, told stunned Cabinet colleagues of his decision on Friday evening. They were sworn to secrecy until a formal announcement was made on Saturday. He insisted the departure was for personal reasons unrelated to the furore over parking and wanted to "change gear". However, senior Tory sources he had been left with no option but to quit after realising he had become hopelessly isolated within Westminster's ruling Tory group. "He didn't have his ducks in a row and he had no supporters," a source said.

Allies of Boris Johnson, who has been hugely critical of the proposals, said Mr Barrow had been offered a way out but had spurned it.

One source said: "The Mayor felt like he had given Colin an escape route on parking months ago by offering to do a joint economic study into the economic impact of the policy and allowing Westminster to suspend the plans until that happened. But Colin was very stubborn. We didn't think any of this was in his best interest."

Today Mr Johnson said: "I was sorry to see Colin Barrow stand down. Despite recent controversies he has served the city well."

Lord Young, the Prime Minister's business adviser and a former Cabinet minister, said: "I hope very much that [Mr Barrow's resignation] means a change in policy and acceptance that Westminster works for the residents not the other way round."

Mr Barrow told the BBC's Sunday Politics London show he still believed the policy was right but admitted that the council had not taken sufficient account of the economic impact, estimated at £800 million a year.

By Jonathan Prynn, Peter Dominczak and Mira Bar-Hillel
The Evening Standard - Monday 16th January 2012
Click to see original article

Colin Barrow's political career will be best remembered for two spectacular failures.

In 2001 he lent his palatial Westminster town house - the former residence of the Bishop of London - to Michael Portillo to use as a campaign headquarters for the former defence secretary's doomed tilt at the Tory party leadership.

A decade later he sealed his own political fate with a hugely unpopular parking policy for the West End that united friend and foe against him.
Neither blot on his CV will unduly worry an insouciant operator who came into politics late in life having made enough money by his forties not to have to work again.

Born in Hampshire in 1952, Mr Barrow started his career as a commercial manager at the oil and gas engineering group John Brown before joining commodities trading giant ED&F Man - later to become the huge hedge fund operator Man Group - in 1983.

He worked for several years on Wall Street, describing his time there as "right in the middle of Gordon Gekko, greed is good, red braces. It was a fascinating, fascinating time. People really worked hard and wanted to get on and there was a sort of immigrant mentality."

Mr Barrow founded and ran Man's investment management arm up to its flotation in 1994, which made him a multi-millionaire. He left Man in 1996 and moved to a country house in Suffolk, in part in search of better care facilities for his autistic son, James.

Mr Barrow - an instinctive Conservative - became involved in party politics there, shortly after the electoral wipe-out of the 1997 Blair landslide.

In an interview he recalled: "I have always been interested in politics. I came out of business, I sold it and sat down and said 'what am I going to do now?' and found myself surrounded by men in blazers who said: 'Have you ever thought about going into local government? I was propelled into a seat, and the next thing I knew I was deputy leader of the Conservative group on Suffolk county council."

Mr Barrow moved back to London in 2001 and after the Portillo election bid, stood for Hyde Park ward in 2002.

He was quickly appointed to the Cabinet under the then leader Simon Milton and was given the economic development and transport role, where his responsibilities included parking.

In 2003, on his watch, plans to introduce evening parking charges in the West End were thrown out on the same grounds - excessive economic damage - he rejected out of hand this time.

At this time Mr Barrow became involved with three think tanks -C Change, the Policy Exchange and Localis - associated with the Tory party's modernising wing championed by rising star David Cameron. In 2004, the year he was appointed a CBE, he made three donations to Conservative Central Office totalling £30,750.

Mr Barrow was elected deputy leader of Westminster in 2005 and leader in 2008. His leadership got off to a rocky start when it emerged that the council had lost £17 million - £10 million on his watch - in the Icelandic banking meltdown.

Having sold the Westminster home, he now occupies with his fourth wife Ana - known not to be a fan of public transport - two adjacent apartments knocked into one in Exhibition Road, worth around £6 million.

He also owns a cabin on a "floating tax haven", a cruise liner called The World, which slowly circumnavigates the globe. Cabins range in price from £400,000 to £9 million.

He lists his hobbies as bridge, skiing, scuba diving and oriental art and loves to be seen at the Ivy, owned by his nemesis, Richard Caring, who funded the legal cases against the parking policy.

In 2009 Mr Barrow faced prosecution over unauthorised renovations carried out at the 330-year-old Darsham House in Suffolk. He and his ex-wife, Angelica, faced nine charges including replacing floorboards with chipboard and plywood. Mr Barrow and his ex-wife pleased not guilty to the charges and after spending £350,000 on legal costs they avoided a criminal conviction.

Mr Barrow remains chairman of his own hedge fund, Alpha Strategic, where a fellow director is the Deputy Mayor of London, Kit Malthouse. He said he now plans to devote his time to "writing and lecturing".

A close friend said Mr Barrow spoke last year about stepping down.

"He told me months ago that he was going to go in spring," the friend said. "He is almost 60, which has significance because his father died when he was 60. He said he wanted to clear the decks this year and that he had already started dropping a few commitments.

"It has been a rough old ride for him for the last two or three years so he said he was thinking about going."

Who is in the running to be the next leader of Westminster Council?

Jonathan Glanz
Age: 51 From: London

View on nightlife tax: Against, but has never spoken out publicly.

The cabinet member for housing is the only potential candidate for the leadership who represents West End ward. Did not attend the meeting when decision on parking charges was taken, but has never spoken publicly against.

The property solicitor maintains he has been vociferous in pointing out the pitfalls of the policy. Educated at University College London, he qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and set up his own property business in 1990. Spoke at 2010 Conservative Party conference about "greening" Soho.

Big supporter of the campaign to re-elect Boris Johnson, who has opposed the parking charges. A married father of a teenage son, his interests include opera and running.

Philippa Roe
Age: 49 From: London

View on nightlife tax: Unclear, but is keenly aware of need to raise revenue

Gave up career as Citigroup director after the birth of her twins. Elected to the council in 2006. With her money background - she was part of team that dreamed up the Private Finance Initiative - was put in charge of finance.

Described as a "technocrat" and seen as formidable intellect. Doubts about Colin Barrow led her to consider a leadership challenge last year. She is a governor of Imperial College, vice-chairman of Macmillan Cancer Support London Events and a patron of Breast Cancer Haven.

Has not spoken on parking charges, but as head of finance would know implications of scrapping the policy. Lives in a £4 million Belgravia home.

Edward Argar
Age: 34 From: Kent

View on nightlife tax: Not a fan - expected to scrap policy if wins

The Oxford-educated management consultant is favoured candidate of parking charge opponents. "Personable" and "pragmatic", the 44-year-old is said to have privately expressed misgivings about the policy. Was previously a political adviser to former shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram in the early Noughties.

Has made no secret of his parliamentary ambitions - he lost to Labour's Andrew Smith in the Oxford East constituency at last election - and may not want to tie himself down in the leadership role. He is cabinet member for city management.

Interests are reading, films, cooking, and watching cricket.

Brian Connell
Age: 41 From: Somerset

View on nightlife tax: Unclear, but as enterprise spokesman he is likely to be against

Son of a Somerset nurseryman. Describes himself as a "sometime adventurer" who loves marathon running and skiing. Environmental science graduate from Southampton University, he is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

Joined KPMG in 2006. Was first elected in 2002 and spent much of 2009 working for Oliver Letwin in the Tories' policy unit. The married father of two is cabinet member for enterprise and volunteering and will have been bombarded with complaints about parking charges. His own views are not known. An outsider for leadership.

Questions and Answers

Why has Colin Barrow stepped down?
He says he always planned to quit at 60 but it is widely assumed that he came under huge pressure to go over the parking charges furore.

What happens now?
Initially, there will be a leadership vacuum at Westminster City Hall. The Tory group is due to meet on Wednesday night when candidates for the leadership are expected to emerge. A successor will be elected by Conservative councillors at the end of February and formally anointed by the full council on March 7.

What does it mean for the future of parking charges?
You can still park free in the West End in the evenings and on Sundays. It is not yet clear what will happen in future, but it seems highly likely that the policy will be dropped by Mr Barrow's successor. The introduction of the charges awaits the outcome of a judicial review, and they will not come in before the Olympics at the earliest in any case.

When will we know?
Soon. Candidates to take over from Mr Barrow will be expected to make their views known on this politically explosive subject during the leadership campaign. It would be a brave politician who said they planned to press on with the charges.

By Mira Bar-Hillel and Jonathan Prynn
The Evening Standard - Monday 16th January 2012
Click to see original article

Colin Barrow's resignation was declared a "victory" by campaigners against Westminster's proposed parking charges - who demanded his successor ditch the plan for good.

Tessa Jowell, shadow minister for London and the Olympics and MP for Dulwich and West Norwood

"Colin Barrow's resignation is the result of the sustained campaign against his undemocratic and high-handed decision to make Westminster a no-go area for residents, tourists and business in the evenings. I congratulate all those who have campaigned against it so hard including the Standard."

Tony Lorenz, estate agent who chairs the Residents' Society of Mayfair and St James's

"It's a real victory. I think it's the end of the road for the night-time parking charges."

Elena Wilson, 36, part-time croupier at Aspinalls in Mayfair

"Resigning was the right thing for him to do. It's a victory for all the night workers who would be so badly affected by these terrible plans. We are hoping whoever takes charge will stand back and look at all the damage that's been done. The trust is gone. The new leader must do something to change all of this."

John Griffin, founder and chairman of Addison Lee - Britain's biggest minicab business

"For Barrow to lose contact with reality, how the parking plan could have destroyed so many businesses, shows he was not a fit person to be responsible for the people of central London. He has fallen on his sword. But whoever takes his place must look very closely at the reaction to these plans."

Ian Haworth, spokesman of the WestEnding group, which represents businesses opposed to restrictions on parking

"The architect of the charges fiasco has stepped aside but the plans have still to be dropped. This is a massive opportunity for a new council leader to make a decisive move and abandon the parking proposals once and for all."

Patricia Michelson, owner of La Fromagerie in Marylebone

"The new leader has a lot of work to do, and a lot of making up to do. We need this not just on the matter of parking but on a whole range of issues. We need to be included so we can make the West End workable again."

Louise Bennett, 30, gaming manager at Crockfords casino in Curzon Street, who has to drive 45 miles home to Hertfordshire after work

"I want [Barrow's] successor to see how much opposition there is to this and abandon the whole thing."

Dave Webster, Musicians Union organiser for the London region

"I hope this leads the council to climb down from their current position. I believe the 'no' to charges campaign has had something to do with this. Barrow has lost confidence in lots of camps - and people have lost their confidence in him."

Estate agent Peter Wetherell, whose High Court action against the council halted the charges

"Barrow is now doing the honourable act of falling on his sword, but he should put his house in order before walking away. Mr Barrow says he is going in March but the 'nightlife tax' plans must be scrapped immediately."

The Evening Standard - Monday 16th January 2012
Click to see orignial article

Colin Barrow's resignation brought a sigh of relief from Downing Street to City Hall. "It is good news," said one No 10 figure brutally. "Hopefully, we will now see the end of this craziness."

The madness was not just Westminster City Council's disastrously conceived parking charges, or indeed its mania for swamping the borough in double yellow lines. More, it was the extraordinary lack of political sensitivity or judgment with which they were imposed.

The Evening Standard can reveal that these concerns went even higher than those Cabinet ministers and advisers who issued public warnings in a vain attempt to make the proud leader admit he was wrong.

Senior political sources reveal that the Prime Minister was almost ready to speak out against the scheme days before it was postponed at Christmas. David Cameron was worried that the parking charges would damage jobs and growth, by driving customers and staff away from the West End.

The downfall of Colin Barrow - and downfall it is, for only a political ingénue would believe he always planned to quit on the eve of the London elections and the excitement of the Olympics - is a saga of single-minded stubbornness in the face of almost unanimous opposition.

Two years ago, Boris Johnson privately warned Mr Barrow that £4.80-an-hour parking charges would create a lot of noise and "people might not like that very much". The hedge fund tycoon, whose Maserati has its own private parking space at his home, pressed on regardless.

No one connected with local government has any doubts why: Westminster was in financial trouble. The flagship Tory council, a model of efficiency under revered former leader Sir Simon Milton, desperately needed cash and the parking charges would raise £7 million.

If Mr Barrow had a tin ear for the worries of restaurateurs, theatre managers and their staff, Conservative Party HQ was less sanguine. "It was obviously toxic in the run-up to the May elections," said a Tory campaigner.

Mr Johnson tried again as D-Day came closer. Sources have revealed he offered a deal to Mr Barrow: Postpone the charges and the pair would announce a joint-study into the economic impact.

"It gave him an exit route, because he could have dropped it quietly later on, but he would not buy it," says a source. "He closed off all his exits, one by one."

An array of Cabinet ministers voiced alarm, including Transport Secretary Justine Greening, Lords Leader Lord Strathclyde, transport minister Norman Baker and the PM's business adviser Lord Young. Mr Barrow seemed tone deaf. When the Standard disclosed that he kept a parking meter in his living room as an ornament, he began to look ridiculous.

Other figures pointed out that some London councils, such as Kensington and Chelsea, had scrapped miles of free on-street parking without massive fuss by taking their time, painting yellow lines one street at a time, and leaving Sunday mornings free for churchgoers. But Westminster was in too much of a hurry. "It called for a more sophisticated kind of leadership than he could give," said a Tory.

Early last month the Mayor finally went public and branded the council "completely mad". Strong words - but necessary to protect the Boris brand from contamination.

After losing a High Court hearing, Mr Barrow agreed to postpone the charges, though he still insists they are the right policy and, officially, they remain on the stocks.

His legacy is a terrible Hobson's choice for Westminster's next leaders - between a financial crisis if they drop the charges and a political crisis if they do not. The craziness is not yet over.

By Joe Murphy, Political Editor
The Evening Standard - Monday 16th January 2012
Click to see original article

Restaurateur Richard Caring is leading a new legal challenge to the planned removal of more than 1,000 West End parking spaces by Westminster council.

The owner of landmarks such as The Ivy, J Sheekey and Le Caprice will seek to block the council's move to convert stretches of single yellow lines to doubles in the High Court next week.

It is the second legal challenge to the Tory-run authority's clampdown on parking in the West End. A judicial review of proposed evening and Sunday parking charges of up to £4.80 an hour is due to be heard in March.

The council confirmed just before Christmas that single yellow lines on about 200 central London streets, mainly in Mayfair and Fitzrovia, will become doubles on January 9.

The decision has stirred up new uproar, being seen by many as a "backdoor" way of curbing parking in the West End after the so called "tax on nightlife" charges were postponed until after the Olympics.

Campaigners claim that the equivalent of 1,191 free out-of-hours spaces will be lost, although the council has insisted that the vast majority are unusable anyway because they are close to junctions.

Lawyers working for Mr Caring will argue that the council has not demonstrated that irresponsible parking on single yellow lines has contributed to congestion and that consultation about the changes was inadequate.

But Lee Rowley, Westminster's cabinet member for transport, dismissed the claims. He told the Standard: "These flimsy accusations are a joke. It would be more controversial if we didn't make these changes given various groups, including disabled representatives and even the leader of the Labour Party in Westminster, have called for them in the past.

"When the lives of disabled people and the elderly will be improved by these changes, it is nonsense to try to create controversy out of nothing.

"We announced the proposals to double yellow line dropped kerbs in March 2010, reconfirmed a review of road markings in August 2011 and received only one negative reply when we published our proposals in November." However, today new voices joined the opposition to the planned changes.

In a letter to the Standard, shadow London minister Tessa Jowell said: "It is outrageous that Westminster appears to be circumventing the legal judgment on its parking plans by converting single yellow lines around the West End into double yellows. Its original plans were almost universally condemned."

Tony Lorenz, chairman of the Residents Society of Mayfair and St James's, said: "This sneaky move to take away 1,000 spaces is ridiculous. Their plan is to take free car parking spaces away and then charge for meters instead. There is no problem with the yellow lines situation at the moment.

"What will happen is residents will grab the meter spaces when they come home from work, which means there won't be enough metered parking bays for people coming in to visit restaurants in the West End.

"They're going to have to drive around Mayfair looking for a space, causing more pollution and more traffic."

By Jonathan Prynn
The Evening Standard - Wednesday 4th January 2012
Click to see original article

Westminster council was today accused of "an appalling breach of faith" after it ordered the removal of more than 1,000 parking spaces in the West End.

Mayor Boris Johnson condemned the Tory authority's "deeply cynical" move, which came nine days after the High Court blocked the introduction of evening and Sunday parking charges.

The latest proposals, "sneaked out" before Christmas, will see single yellow lines converted to "no parking at any time" double yellows on January 9 - amounting to the loss of the equivalent of 1,191 free out-of-hours parking spaces.

Critics said it was effectively a "backdoor" way of forcing drivers out of the West End in defiance of the ruling by Mr Justice Collins on December 14. That decision resulted in council leader Colin Barrow suspending the £4.80-an-hour "tax on nightlife" until after the Olympics.

In his most outspoken attack yet, the Mayor told the Standard: "This is a deeply cynical move and an appalling breach of faith. Small businesses, churchgoers, actors, and thousands of decent Londoners rely on the West End for their livelihood and we all rely on them to maintain the economic vitality of our great city. I urge Westminster to pause and think about the consequences of their increasingly reckless decisions. And I've asked GLA economics, informed by TfL, to start an immediate assessment of the impact of this move."

Labour's mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone also condemned the action, saying: "Westminster council seems to have taken leave of its senses."

The Liberal Democrats' Brian Paddick said: "This is absolutely outrageous behaviour by Westminster council. They are quite clearly hell-bent on damaging the economy of the West End in order to raise money from motorists."
The new restrictions will affect hundreds of streets in Mayfair, Fitzrovia and parts of Marylebone, although Soho and Covent Garden are largely unscathed.

In total, about 16 per cent of the single yellow lines, which allow free parking in the evening and on Sundays, will be changed. The announcement, from Westminster's commissioner of transportation Martin Low, came on the afternoon of Friday December 23.

Patricia Michelson, owner of La Fromagerie cheese shop in Marylebone, said: "It's absolutely atrocious. To decide to do this on 23 December, just before everyone goes away for Christmas, is appalling.

"What annoys me is they say they want to listen, they want to review, but it's a complete lie. Within a few days of saying that, they bring in all these yellow line conversions. It's totally deceitful, sly and not in the interest of anyone."

Nicola Powrie, 38, a croupier at Les Ambassadeurs casino, Mayfair, said: "I drive from Chelmsford and rely on yellow lines to park. What the council is doing is disgusting. I don't think they want anyone to come into London."

Glenys Roberts, a West End councillor and the only Tory council member to come out fully against the plans, said: "There is a lot of local anger because the assumption was nothing was about to go through after the judge advised the council not to go ahead."

Paul Dimoldenberg, Labour's group leader on the council said: "This was a deliberate attempt to sneak things through when everybody was off on their Christmas holidays. Also, they knew the Standard would not be able to publish anything for days. It's an outrageous abuse of the council's powers and I'm sure the High Court will have something to say about this."

In a separate development Mr Dimoldenberg revealed that the council had admitted to a huge miscount of the number of single yellow line parking spaces that would have been axed under its original proposals. Instead of the 1,719 figure given to councillors, the real total was 8,463.

Under the new proposals, the council said removing single yellow lines would let pedestrians cross more safely at many junctions, allow emergency-response vehicles better access to buildings, and enable drivers to drop off passengers more easily.

It said its own research showed the move "should not materially impact" the ability of motorists to park on single yellow lines after 6.30pm.

A spokesman also insisted the timing of the announcement was driven by its desire to "get the information out there as quickly as possible so people could appreciate what it will mean. There was definitely no sweeping under the carpet".

The spokesman added that "over 90 per cent of these places cannot be parked on anyway because of the Highway Code". He said most of the new double yellow lines were on so called "dropped kerbs", where pedestrians cross, at 170 road junctions.

Lee Rowley, the council's cabinet member for parking and transport, said: "Highway Code rule 243 makes it clear you cannot park at a junction. We know that people still do inadvertently park on a junction and if they do they get a ticket. We think it's important to make it as clear as possible."

Westminster Older People's Action, an independent campaign group for local residents, said it was "wholeheartedly in favour" of the plan.

Q&A

What is the council doing?
Converting stretches of single yellow lines into double yellow lines across the West End on Monday January 9.

Which streets will be affected?
More than 200 roads in the West End, Mayfair, Fitzrovia and Marylebone, such as Berkeley Square, Mount Street and New Bond Street, will see at least some sections of single yellow lines converted into doubles.

What will this mean for motorists?
Less "free" parking spaces in the evenings and on Sundays will inevitably mean more drivers having to pay up to £4.80 an hour on metered bays or using car parks.

How many parking spaces will be lost?
The equivalent of 1,191 car spaces, around 16 per cent of the total in the affected zones of the West End.

How does this compare with the "tax on nightlife" abolition of all free West End parking in the evenings and on Sunday afternoons proposed, and shelved, by Westminster council?
That would have resulted in more than 8,400 fewer parking spaces.

Who could be affected by the council's new move?
According to critics, residents who struggle to find designated residents' parking spaces; pub, restaurant and casino staff, who rely on single yellow lines to park; theatregoers and other visitors. But the council says it will be much better for pedestrians and drivers dropping people off or picking them up.

Your say

Olivia Knowles, 23
works at Hard Rock Cafe on Old Park Lane: "There's a lot of people who drive to come here and people are already having to drive around for half an hour to find a space sometimes. This will just make it worse."

George Ellamaa, 39
chaffeur from Hertfordshire: "This will make it very hard for us. If you are on £10 an hour, you cannot afford to pay for parking if you want to stop and get something to eat. It's not worth it. We will have to drive around looking for somewhere to park. That will just add to the congestion."

Liliana Bujak, 38
lives on Baker Street and works in film production: "I park in the West End and it's already hard enough. Turning some of the single yellows into double yellows is just going to make it more expensive and nearly impossible."

Chris Ramsey, 23
duty manager of Clarence Bar, Mayfair: "This will affect customers who take their car into the area. Many already say it's difficult to park. A lot of businesses will be affected."

Ibrar Saleem, 36
contract lawyer from Walthamstow: "I take my disabled father into central London just to get him out. This will make that more difficult. Finding a parking space is already appalling and it's going to get worse."

By Peter Dominiczak, Michael Howie & Jonathan Prynn
The Evening Standard - Tuesday 3rd Janunary 2012
Click to see orignial article

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