At tonight's Wokingham Borough Council Meeting the Conservatives presented a Petition to Stop the Increased Parking Charges which had the incredible support of 4238 signatures.
Speech by Cllr Keith Baker, presenting the petition
“I am presenting a petition to stop the parking charges that are scheduled to be implemented on January 1st. This has been signed by a staggering 4,238 people which is a massive response in just 3 weeks. At the same time there are literally hundreds of comments on social media pointing out the negative impact of such an action. Many of them have indicated they will no longer be using WBC car parks when shopping or visiting a restaurant. Instead, they will go to the many shopping areas or large retail units because their parking is free.
"I would like to sincerely thank the dozens of retail outlets who actively participated in the collection of these signatures. Unlike this coalition they recognised the drastic impact on their businesses that these extortionate increases in car park charges will have. Many of them will simply not be able to survive with the reduction in footfall from residents boycotting WBC car parks because they are too expensive.
"This is especially so when you think of the hospitality sector where for the first time evening charges are being imposed. Night time economies will be severely hit as patrons take their business elsewhere to establishments with their own free car parks.
"The coalition has mentioned several times that the last time charges went up was in 2018 and the increase was only 10p on the 1 hour slot. This process started in 2016 and included a huge consultation with 341 responses. It also included a 1 year trial period to see what the financial impact was before making a decision. Extensive financial data was provided throughout the process. Now this is how you consult on something that will have an impact on residents and businesses. So what did the coalition do with their proposals – consult no-one, residents or businesses, provide no business case – they simple voted to impose them.
"In 2016 the liberal democrat opposition did not like how the previous administration managed the process using a call-in which was reviewed by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee. I would like to put on record our thanks to Cllrs, Bray, Ferris, Rowland and Rachelle Shepherd-Dubey – the signatories on that call-in to providing a template that we have used to call-in your decision on these charges.
"As you did not carry out any consultation on your proposals, we thought we would do it for you. In under three weeks we collected 4,238 signatures all opposing your increases. You keep on saying you are going to listen to residents – well let residents know that your commitment to listen is real and not simply words.”
