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Originally Posted by BECLAZONE
Had a little drive around a few days ago, and found that Epping Forest, has now had a load of parking spaces installed, that, you have to pay for.
Queen Victoria, gave the forest to the people, on the 6th of May, 1882.
https://eppingforestforum.com/the-pe.../#page-content
Any thoughts. |
There was a lot of criticism of the plans to introduce parking charges back in 2021 and it seems like just another excuse to punish motorists, and will inevitable put people off visiting the forest.
Epping Forest is of course owned and managed by the cash rich City of London Corporation (London's Financial District) who made the statement below -
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Originally Posted by My London (2021)
“Epping Forest as a registered charity relies on the public for income from car parking charges to help protect the people’s forest".
“Managing a busy forest with 4.2 million annual visits, alongside internationally important nature and heritage conservation projects, is a demanding exercise which costs £4.5m to run each year, without the support of local taxation.
“Following a public consultation Epping Forest joins most other visitor destinations in charging people to park their vehicles while visiting the site. All charges are reinvested into managing the Forest.”
Drivers' fury at new Epping forest parking charges that could cost a fortune - My London (2021) |
As for the City of London Corporation (London's Square Mile) you would have thought £4.5 million would have been a relatively small amount given the profits made through the financial sector, although perhaps this is related to the bigger picture when it comes to the Corporation's spending, which now includes the relocation of the Museum of London from the Barbican to Smithfield which is now set to cost £500 million and the relocation of the of Billingsgate (fish), Smithfield (meat and poultry) rand later New Spitalfields (fruit, veg & flowers) markets to Dagenham at a cost of around £1 Billion.
On top of this the City has now learned that the Barbican Centre is in need of more than £450m for essential works, with a report highlighting the spending published just the other week, and this comes after plans were abandoned in in relation to building a new Concert Hall for the London Symphony Orchestra.
So perhaps the fact the city is committed to spending £2 Billion on these schemes, means that they are looking to try and squeeze as much money as possible in relation to parking and any other income sources, although it's sadly it's people who just enjoy a nice walk in the countryside that are now having to help pay for the burgeoning city spending bill.
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