Cheshire East Council is to consult the public on introducing Sunday and evening parking charges along with cashless machines after the move was backed by councillors, writes Belinda Ryan.
The decision to hold a further public consultation was taken immediately after the highways and transport committee agreed to introduce parking charges in the currently ‘free’ towns and villages and hike up fees in those which already pay.
The council says despite these new charges, expected to come into force in October, there is still an £800,000 budget shortfall and these additional measures are needed to address that.
But some members of the highways and transport committee were opposed to some of the new proposals.
The plan to go cashless was agreed, with eight voting in favour and five against, following an amendment that payment by cash be retained as an option on at least one car park per town or parish.
Committee chair Craig Browne (Alderley Edge, Ind) told the meeting: “This must be one of the easiest ways available to us, as a council, of saving £100,000 a year.
“I just don’t buy the argument, if you own a car, you tax it, insure it, maintain it, put fuel in it by paying cash every time and don’t have access to an alternative means of payment.
“For the more vulnerable road users I would have thought being able to pay from the comfort of one’s own vehicle was infinitely preferable than standing in front of a pay and display machine juggling coins.”
But Cllr Hazel Faddes (Crewe, Lab) pointed out 40% of parking payments in the borough were still done by cash and said payment by card only during lockdown had resulted in numerous complaints.
Cllr Liz Braithwaite (Macclesfield, Lab) said going cashless would have a disproportionate impact on the elderly, disabled and less well-off.
“Just because someone has a bank card doesn’t mean they have money in the account, especially just before pay day,” she said.
“Many more people are using cash as a way of managing their money.”
Cllr Russell Chadwick (Dane Valley, Con) raised concerns about evening and Sunday parking charges.
“Sunday parking is a pay to pray charge and I certainly will not be supporting that,” he said.
And he feared evening charges would have an impact on revitalising town centres.
“A lot of the shops have got empty flats above and what we’re trying to do is encourage people to live in those properties,” he said.
“Because they’re terraced houses, if we start to charge them [to park] in the evening, when they get home from work, they’ve got to start paying for living in the town and it’s not going to help revitalise our towns and villages.”
The committee voted in favour of going to public consultation on proposals to introduce Sunday charging at the same rate as weekdays and to extend parking charges to cover evening periods from 6pm to 10pm.
It also narrowly approved – by seven votes to six – consulting on proposals to revoke the ‘four free days’ currently available to town and parish councils.
But the plan to start charging motorists from 8am across the borough will not go ahead following concerns from several councillors this would affect the school run.
Cheshire East pleasing the people they are supposed to serve to pay for years of there total incompetence. Only in politics is there no punishment for total incompetence.
Why don’t the councillors at Cheshire East put themselves on performance related pay then we would save a vast amount of money.
All good in consulting the public, BUT, given the dire straits Cheshire East Council is facing, why waste money and time on a consultation process, when the outcome will be the same – prices will be increased.
Gives 1 hour free parking a day then oh we can’t let people who are too lazy some people might I add to be charged for the school run that park, don’t thay course pollution unnecessarily big 4 by 4 etc maybe if the council did start to charge from 8am it would help with pollution levels caused by the school run by parents using vehicles unnecessarily we all know this happends want to drop ur kid off fine go to the school stop let kid out move on simple no need for cloging up the car parks and streets around the schools on white lines and yellow lines all of which you should not do you know who U are simple thing to do is go to the school drop of kids and move on but ur forgeting one thing hear you will need to pick ur kids up right well guess what you will have to pay for parking won’t you did U think of that nope you don’t
Mr Moorhouse is absolutely correct. Another consultation is like setting fire to money. Can any one tell me what the last consultation cost the tax payer. Staff required, salaries cost, total administration costs. Yet another example of evidence of the incompetence of both Counsellors and officers.
When you add up the total cost of all these vanity projects it will be doubt a vast sum of money.
You might have some empathy if they acted on the feedback.
These consultations are totally fictitious.
Just more taxpayers money wasted.
It would help if you could get the parking app code for the area your are in from your car!
At the moment you have to walk over to the pay machine to find out the special code as the app is hopeless and slow to recognise where you are.
I park in few regular places across the county, and have them savwd, but if you I go somewhere new, like the upcoming places, there needs to be signs all around the car park with the code, links to the app and the phone number for the more vulnerable people without smart phones to call and pay. All before getting out of the car at all.
Great, presumably this means the controlled hours in Nantwich will start at 9am instead of 8am then? That’s something to be grateful for!
The councillor’s remark – “For the more vulnerable road users I would have thought being able to pay from the comfort of one’s own vehicle was infinitely preferable than standing in front of a pay and display machine juggling coins.” , is all very well, but the last time I had to use a parking app, I had to get out of the car in freezing wind- driven rain in order to even obtain a signal. It then took three attempts to connect with the app, by which time I was soaked and frozen.
Each time I’ve used a parking app it has taken far longer than it would have using coins or a debit card.
Unfortunately we don’t all own smartphones, and we don’t all occupy the same world of green grass and fluffy bunnies as this lucky councillor.
The answer to both charging at night and on a Sunday is NO,but why ask as Chris so rightly pointed out the council will do whatever it wants anyway.
They have been for many years a total disgrace no thought or respect for you the tax payers, be very careful of who you vote for in the next election .
They already know the outcome so why waste time in a fictitious consultation. It is just a sop to be able to say “we consulted”.