East Grinstead's Conservative Cllr Jacquie Russell did not give up the fight on behalf of East Grinstead residents over Lib Dem-run Mid Sussex District Council imposing an "unfair" hike to car parking charges in the town.
At tonight's Mid Sussex District's full council meeting (26 February) Cllr Russell and her Conservative colleagues proposed an amendment against a further increase in parking charges.
Unsurprisingly, it was defeated by the ruling Lib Dem/Independent alliance running MSDC.
Conservatives sought to both assist residents in parking close to their homes overnight without extra charge, and to boost the town's nigh-time economy.
Cllr Russell told the meeting: "...it’s disingenuous to state, that increased use of car parks indicates that the strategy works, when East Grinstead is the only town in the district with a controlled-parking zone, and sees permit holders often forced into the car parks to pay, due to parking limitations on-street. Their position is now further exacerbated by evening/weekend charging.
"Whilst I am pleased my request to introduce a discounted overnight permit was taken forward, permit holders understandably remain unhappy at being forced to pay for their previously free contingency,
"Furthermore I have huge concerns about permit holders living in/around Vicarage and Chequer Mead car parks who currently have no overnight permit offer - not to mention the impact on volunteers at Chequer Mead Theatre who now have to pay for parking."
The free evening parking to be abolished (between 6pm and 8am), not only supported the night time economy, but gave permit holding residents a fallback in the event they couldn’t secure a space on-street at night.
The increased tariff means that parking in East Grinstead will increase by 10p across all tariffs, costing £1.40 for the first hour in car parks from the new financial year.
"It's a ludicrous proposal and the third increase in parking in a year all to raise an extra £115k in revenue whilst the villages remain free and there's no sign of any design for a car park upgrade in Queens Rd but putting in ANPR (more punitive measures!) in Vicarage car park", says Cllr Russell.
Lib-Dem Leader's U-turn
The Council's Lib-Dem Leader proposed a further amendment to his own budget which had gone through a working party and agreed by Cabinet.
He then sought to amend it by offering to extend the overnight permit offer to Vicarage (thus further increasing council revenue) and to do a feasibility study to consider offering a limited amount of concessionary permits for community volunteers using council car parks -- totally missing the point that volunteers don't get paid, and didn't used to have to pay for car parking at all.
This amendment was carried by a majority despite 11 cross-party votes against the idea.
Town let down
East Grinstead should have expected better from its so-called Independent councillors at the meeting. Instead, one EG Indy group member voted for the increase and one abstained on the amendment. But, against the majority views during the public consultation about parking fees, both voted for the MSDC budget.
