There has quite rightly been outrage at the 800% rise in
parking fees at Arrochar announced by Argyll and Bute council. Such charges are nothing new if you live in
the Lake District of course. Here high charges
are the norm and you won’t get much change from a tenner in the popular places. Such charges in reality are nothing more than an access tax.
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| A few places in the Lakes still exist where parking is free but it only a matter of time before these too succumb to high parking charges. |
Paying such high fees to access the hills if you arrive by
car is bad enough, but what has shocked me just as much is the gullibility of some
outdoor users, either in accepting, or indeed supporting such charges.
A common thread seems to be, it’s only fair we pay to access the hills to cover such things as the car parks themselves, path
repairs, or make up the funding shortfall for councils and the national parks
etc. A few even seem happy with the notion
of high prices reducing the number of people heading to the hills!
Reality Check
But hang on let’s just take a step back here. Why on earth do some people think it is
acceptable to pay a tax to park when we are already paying taxes? Ahh I hear you say, what about funding cuts by
the Government, the shortfall should be made up by outdoor users, it’s only
fair surely? After all there is no magic
money tree, at least not according to the likes of Theresa May.
Well in short it seems to be down to priorities and the outdoors and
the environment are sitting somewhere near the bottom of the list when it comes
to government providing money. At the
other end of the spectrum of course, such places are top of the list when it
comes to money making opportunities.
Loads a Money.
Don’t be conned into thinking there isn’t enough money
because this really does come down to priorities. After all there was more than enough money to
pay the DUP £1.5 billion to side with the Tories after the last election. There is more than enough money to pay large
subsidies to farmers and the renewables industry for example. And, we certainly seem to be able to find
plenty of money to fund wars and drop bombs on people. When it comes to politicians themselves, many
of which are among the richest people in our country, they have no problem in
asking tax payers to fork out some £3.7 million for food and drink subsidies
within the House of Commons. These
examples are just a tiny proportion compared to the Billions given to big
businesses in the form of tax breaks of course.
Pulling the
Conservation Trump Card
When it comes to arguments about why people should pay to
park, the trump card seems to be the environment. Interestingly people
conveniently forget about industries such as grouse shooting and renewables that
really do cause some serious damage to our upland areas. In fact it could be argued that grouse
shooting and the renewables industry between them have a much greater impact
than our boots will ever have. Add in
the fact that there are several groups using donations to repair footpaths all
over the country and the argument for taxes to cover these costs seems much
less compelling as well.
So let’s be blunt here, what governments really mean when
they make cuts to national parks and local councils - is the environment is not
a priority, what is a priority however is making money from the people who
value it.
Given how important the outdoors is to the health and
well-being of millions of people, surely instead of rolling over and paying, we should,
along with the organisation that represent us, be lobbying governments
harder to give more money to the National Parks and councils who provide
parking. One thing for certain we should
not be picking up the shortfall willingly.
© David Forster
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