Hackney Conservatives have pledged their support for a large group of small business owners and local residents who have decided to stage a second protest march against the Hackney Council, for their over-the-top, ‘bully-boy’ attitude to enforcing parking restrictions along Andre Street which is threatening to put lots of people out of work in the depths of a recession.
The protest, which is planned to take place at noon this Friday, is a follow up to a similar demonstration which took place last Thursday over the same problem, being that on June 15, six police officers and five traffic wardens unexpectedly arrived on Andre Street and fined a group of small business owners for momentarily breaching parking restrictions while moving cars in and out of their garages.
Protest convenor and local small businessman Sabri Keski commented on the groundswell of local support, stating that, ‘[w]e had around thirty to forty people attend our rally last week, and we are expecting similar numbers again. We are fed up with this Council’.
Both Conservative parliamentary candidates for Hackney support the local traders’ protests. Simon Nayyar, Conservative parliamentary spokesman for Hackney South and Shoreditch said:

‘While we obviously do not endorse or encourage illegal parking, we understand that it is a very tough trading environment for small businesses. These are exactly the kind of local people who deserve the help of Hackney Council. Instead, all they’ve got is lack of consultation, lack of sensitivity, and a council apparently hell-bent on seeing these businesses go to the wall’.

Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Darren Caplan agreed, noting that:

‘Both this Labour government and this Labour Council have an ideologically anti-car agenda, which makes life very difficult for Hackney’s shoppers, traders and small businesses. Times are difficult enough as it is – instead of punishing Hackney businesses by enforcing ever stricter and unnecessary parking rules, local politicians should be standing up for them and making it easier for them to trade’.

Sabri Keski summed up the attitude of local residents and businesses:

‘This Council obviously finds it easier to fine us for parking incorrectly while moving cars in order to conduct our business, rather than coming out to meet us and discuss how we might be able to survive and keep our doors open during the tough months and years ahead’.
‘I urge everyone who is fed up with this Council to join us on Andre Street at 12 noon this Friday 17 July, for our march down to the Town Hall’.

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