What happened to the Car Park protest at the last St Neots Neighbourhood Forum?

Back before 26th July 2010 some of the Anti Car Park Charges protest leadership complained there was no way to challenge councillors over the car parking charges. At the time, I pointed out there were not only Neighbourhood Meetings there was also the Annual Town Meeting that could be used.

Neither had been used by the Protesters to ask questions or make statements. In fact the St Neots meeting was only attended by a few members of the public. So the Protesters decided decided to make a noise at the next event out in Kimbolton. On their Facebook site they set up an event for this meeting.

Now the minutes/notes have been published I thought I would take a what the protesters did and achieved at this meeting. At the previous meeting there was 36 attendees. At 26th July meeting there were 48. An increase of 12 over the St Neots meeting! Reading through the notes of the meeting I found NOTHING was raised about Car Parking Charges at the Riverside.
When the Forum was asked about ANY Neighbourhood issues Riverside Car Parking wasn't even raised.

Nor was Riverside Car Parking raise for future issues to be considered.

For all the protesters hype they did nothing at this meeting. This protest was part of the political pantomime.

--------------------------

How is the rest of the "Protest" movement getting on. The silence is virtually deafening.

The No Car Parking Charges Facebook site: A flurry of activity on 22nd August 2010 and nothing since.
The St Neots View Facebook site: A comment on 30th August 2010 about how well the Festival went and that is about it. Obviously no other issues of concern to the people of St Neots.
Support St Neots website: This had the potential of being a good place to properly discuss issues. As with the other sites it hasn't moved.
Scrap HDC website: This site, supposedly run by Lorraine Hines, which is full of lies and misinformation has also gone very quiet.
Save St Neots website: Jon Mountfort's other site which is also full of lies and misinformation is also very quiet.

Whilst others may fall by the wayside, this blog will continue to look at politics in St Neots in a critical way without fear or favour. The other place that will continue is The St Neots Community Forum where debates about St Neots can and do happen.

Where does the protest go now?

They had the march and now the protesters are thinking what can we do next? The Facebook site has been very silent on this issue. The natural progression would be to make the protest into a political movement and stand for council. But this protest was mainly organised by the Liberal Democrats and therefore a new political movement for St Neots would disadvantage the Liberal Democrat elite.

There are some who want to take this further and compare the small numbers to the poll tax demonstrations in 1991. There were far larger demonstrations in 1990.

If there is no way forward then it is likely to be a damp squib.

What could they do to carry on the protest? Here are some ideas:

Call a Town Meeting and hold a Parish Poll on the subject. This would cost money, but SNTC has lots in reserves. The downside is the Facebook protest was an utter failure at a leaflet campaign.

Demonstrate outside Pathfinder House. Go and protest at the next Council or Cabinet Meeting. Of course this would take time and effort to organise.

Don't pay the parking charges or the fines. Set up a protest where people simply park and don't pay. Needs a good support network.

Stand candidates against Conservative Councillors. The Liberal Democrats won't be happy about this one.

The problem with this campaign is where does it go now? I hope it will turn out to be a damp squib and the demo will turn out to be the last act in a political PANTOMIME.