THE PINK ZONE AND PARKING METERS (Hansard, 15 March 1960)

§ EARL HOWE
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT (LORD CHESHAM)
My Lords, as your Lordships will recall, it was announced on January 12 that most of the temporary car parks which had been provided in connection with the arrangements for the Pink Zone would be closed as from January 16. My right honourable friend the Minister of Works agreed, however, to allow the continued use of the Horse Guards Parade for car parking until the Mayfair parking meter scheme came into operation. It was made clear that the Parade Ground might be required before that date for ceremonial occasions or assemblies. It has now proved necessary to withdraw the parking facilities in Horse Guards Parade at 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, in order to allow for resurfacing the Parade and for the necessary preliminary arrangements for the review of Household Troops to be held during the State visit of General de Gaulle in early April.
The experimental ban on loading and unloading at a number of difficult intersections and lengths of street particularly liable to congestion between 1 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., which was an essential feature of the Pink Zone, will continue 1100 for the time being, but will be reviewed in the Spring.
The police continue their enforcement activities, and I am informed by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary that in December the police removed 4,500 cars in the zone, in January 6,000 and in February, 5,500. Drivers in the Pink Zone have never been prevented from leaving their cars in authorised parking places; elsewhere they should be sure that they do not infringe waiting restrictions and are not likely to cause obstruction. When the new parking meter scheme is introduced on April 4 the whole area of Mayfair will be covered by meters, and it will be clear that in that area parking is prohibited everywhere except at metered parking bays.

§ EARL HOWE
My Lords, while thanking the noble Lord very much for his Answer, I would ask whether it is not rather an unfortunate thing that the Horse Guards Parade has to be cleared of the machinery which at present ornaments it, and is it intended to do something else to provide parking places for the cars that use it? Is not the effect of the closing of Horse Guards Parade, and maybe other parking places, to increase the difficulties of parking a motor car and of London traffic generally? And what are you going to do if the position gets as bad as it was before the Pink Zone came in?

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, I would agree that the closure of Horse Guards Parade is going to help in no way with the problem of parked cars, but that closure is inevitable at the moment, and, so far as I know, there is no alternative that can be offered at the present time. It is only a matter of waiting until the 4th April, when the parking meter scheme comes in. I should be very surprised to find things getting as bad as they were before the Pink Zone was brought in.

LORD SOM̃ERS
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he is aware that not a single detail as to either the extent of the Pink Zone or the rules which apply in it has been made available in print to the general public; and does he not think it rather an extraordinary thing to impose laws and 1101 restrictions and to penalise people for breaking them without even telling them what they are?

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, my noble friend is entirely incorrect, I am glad to say. The fullest possible details of the Pink Zone were widely circulated by every means we could think of to anybody who wished to listen before the Pink Zone came into operation.

§ EARL HOWE
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord this question again: Is it not quite clear from his Answer that the closing of Horse Guards Parade is going to produce another serious problem for London traffic as a whole unless efforts are made by the Ministry of Works or by some other Government Department to try to accommodate the cars that will have absolutely nowhere to go?

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, the seriousness of that problem has not escaped us.

§ LORD DERWENT
My Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether it has not, in fact, been proved by this experiment in the Pink Zone that no zone, whether pink, blue, or yellow, can be a success as regards parking until a proper survey has been made of parking space available, including kerb-side parking space; and does my right honourable friend the Minister intend to have such a survey made?

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, I can say in answer to my noble friend that my right honourable friend is thinking very hard of everything he possibly can to solve this matter. These things do not go all that fast, but I am perfectly certain that if a survey is necessary it will be made. All possible places for parking are being explored.

§ LORD SILKIN
My Lords, would the noble Lord say what alternative plans the Government have for dealing with the hundreds of cars that are at present being parked in the Horse Guards Parade? The noble Lord has not answered the question of the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and it is going to be a great hardship on people who have to park their cars. Surely the Government have some alternative plans for dealing with the problem.

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, I regret to say that at the present moment there is no alternative plan which can be offered—if I take the sense of the noble Lord's question aright, shall we say, on Monday.

§ LORD SILKIN
My Lords, I mean that when the facilities are withdrawn on Horse Guards Parade, is there any other place to which these parkers can be directed?

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, so far as I am aware, there is no place to which they do not at present have access.

§ LORD DERWENT
Might I ask my noble friend one more supplementary question for information purposes? Can he give the date on which my right honourable friend will stop thinking and start doing?

§ LORD CHESHAM
Yes, my Lords. I cannot give the exact date, but it was a date about the middle of October, 1959.