Wokingham Town On-Street Parking Charge Plan - "Tories have got it wrong" say Lib-Dems (Wokingham Liberal Democrats)

Wokingham Liberal Democrats <info@wokinghamlibdems.org.uk>

Wokingham Town On-Street Parking Charge Plan - "Tories have got it wrong" say Lib-Dems

July 9, 2009 12:00 PM

Free parking for now, in Milton Road

In response to the Wokingham Tory plan to charge £1 for half an hour's parking, Wokingham's Liberal Democrats say the Tories have got it all wrong.

The council's executive has referred the matter to Overview & Scrutiny committee, which started its review last night.

Councillor Prue Bray (Leader of the Lib Dem Councillor Group, councillor for Winnersh ward, and member of the Overview & Scrutiny committee) says, "Despite the Tories saying it would help local traders, the Lib Dems believe that the Tory plans to charge £1 to park in the street for half an hour would be a disaster. And from what they said, the town representatives who came to speak at the meeting agree with us. Who would be prepared to pay £1 just to pop into the shops for half an hour?

"This is just another Tory attempt to make more money and has nothing to do with helping our town. If the Tories really wanted to make Wokingham vibrant and to help our hard-pressed traders, and residents too, they should be encouraging more shoppers to the town not discouraging them by charging £1 for half an hour's parking.

Councillor Phil Challis (Councillor for Loddon ward and member of the Overview & Scrutiny committee) said, "From the evidence we heard, the Tory Executive made their decision to charge for on-street parking without doing any work to find out the impact this would have on traders and residents. And amazingly, we were told last night that the proposed scheme has changed completely but we were given no details whatsoever about what the differences were.

"It's unbelievable that the Tory Executive made a decision based on no information or evidence, but I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, as they decided to scrap dog waste bins and close public toilets and sports pavilions without any kind of business case to back their decisions.

"The Executive may be prepared to make decisions without having all the facts, but the Overview & Scrutiny Committee must make sure that this important issue gets the full investigation and consideration it deserves. The Executive cannot expect the Overview & Scrutiny committee to simply rubber-stamp their plans. Detailed plans and evidence must be made available for our next meeting."

Prue Bray added, "We were stunned to be told at the meeting that the timing of this decision means that the public consultation would take place in August. The Tory Executive has been heavily criticised for consulting over the summer holidays in the past and you would have thought the Tories would have learnt not to repeat that mistake. The committee agreed with my proposal that the Executive should be told to change the timing of the consultation. The Tories would be a laughing-stock if they went ahead with it over the holidays."

Half-hour free parking in Peach Street

Phil Challis said, "This ill-thought out attempt to make money is a complete fiasco. The Tories really should get their act together and come up with a coherent parking strategy for the whole borough which properly takes into account the needs of businesses and residents."