Residents in Westminster have shown signs of losing patience with the Council over its insistence on retaining motorcycle parking charges in the face of massive opposition from the biking community.

The petitioners say: “We are sure that very few have escaped having their daily commute in Westminster blighted by the recent series of demonstrations by angry motorcyclists campaigning against the introduction of parking charges for motorcycles. Whilst originally infuriated, and initially assessing their complaint to be selfish and inconsiderate, we took it on ourselves to look more closely at the basis of their complaint and, having seen irrefutable evidence of a total lack of genuine justification for the City Council to impose a levy where there has never historically been the need, we have compiled a petition on our website” 

www.wccpetition.co.uk

Warren Djanogly, Chairman of the No To Bike Parkign Tax Campaign, said: "It seems that residents are now more aware than ever of the way in which this Council has blatantly ignored thousands of bikers, and are continuing to line the pockets of the private companies contracted to enforce these charges, at a cost to the rate-payer of over £400,000." 

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said; “There is massive opposition to Westminster Council’s motorbike parking charges from residents, commuters and local businesses. There is no justification for charging motorbike owners to park on the street. No other Council charges. The Westminster motorbike parking tax is all about raising money for Westminster Conservatives so that they can plug a big hole in the Council’s finances.” 

“This is a time for common sense to prevail. The motorbike parking charge is Westminster’ s ‘poll tax on two wheels’ and like the poll tax it is hated and should be scrapped” 

Portland based team Moto Czysz and their rider Mark Miller confirmed their position as race favourites for the 2010 TT Zero Electric bike race at the Isle of Man TT races with a lap of 94.664mph.

The team recorded the fastest ever lap – albeit an unofficial lap record as it is not recorded during a race - for an electric bike around the famous mountain course, beating the 2009 race record of their closest challengers Team Agni who recorded 87.434mph average lap speed in winning the 2009 race.

Moto Czysz lead from the start of the practice and were already over 17 seconds ahead of their nearest challengers ManTTx (James McBridge) at Glen Helen with defending champion Rob Barber and Team Agni third fastest. Martin Loicht’s HTBLAUVA - XX Project, Kingston University (George Spence) and Mark Buckley and Team Ecolve were also timed at over 60mph. Team Agni passed the Manx team before Ballaugh but were unable to match the speeds of the MotoCzysz team who were clocked at 102.566mph to Ramsey, having been recorded at a speed of 131.1 through the Sulby Speed Trap. Barber’s Team Agni also clocked over 100mph at Sulby.

The Americans continued their impressive charge and were still just below the 100mph (99.974mph) at the Bungalow and eventually finished over 3 minutes ahead of their nearest challengers. Team boss Michael Czysz believes that the team could still claim the £10,000 prize that the Isle of Man Government will award if a team can break the prestigious 100mph average lap speed around the course but acknowledges that it is an uphill task. Reflecting on their success to date he said: “I’m really confident now with the bike and will happily not touch it now until the race. I think that the bike is capable of achieving the 100mph lap as we still have something in reserve but it will require everything going right on race day.”

Ten teams are participating in the 2010 TT Zero with SERT, the Swedish Electric Race team, unable to practice tonight due to a malfunctioning engine. New parts are being rushed to the Island ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s race.