Council performs U-turn on car parking charge

District council accused of "farcical" U-turn as plan to charge for Sunday parking is dropped

PLANS to charge for Sunday parking in Newbury have been abandoned two days after West Berkshire Council announced it was looking to introduce a £1 fee.

The council issued a press release on Wednesday to state that the issue would be looked at during Thursday's full council meeting.

It is currently free to park in Newbury car parks on Sundays but it has been the council's intention to bring in seven-day charging for some time.

A statement released said: “The report has been withdrawn because it is felt to be premature.

“The future pattern of usage of the town centre on Sundays is yet to become clear, since it is likely to be influenced heavily by the opening of Parkway at the end of October.

“It is therefore deemed prudent to wait until we have evidence of the use of car parking on Sundays post Parkway, before discussing the proposed decision. We cannot put a time-scale on that at this stage.”

The council has recently announced a first quarter overspend of £427,000 and with income from car-parking and fines down by around £150,000 it was believed the charges would help boost the coffers.

The shadow finance spokesman David Rendel (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central) accused the Conservative administration of "panic budgeting" and called the U-turn “a farce”.

“The only reason they were bringing this in was to deal with the shortfall but the overspend is quite a lot more than that,” he said.

“I don't know why they said they were going to do it and then changed their mind. The whole thing is a bit of a farce.

“A report will have to be produced which will then go through the council, you can forget about seeing these charges for at least a year."

The leader of the council, Graham Jones (Con, Lambourn) said Mr Rendel was “making a mountain out of a molehill”.

“It is important that the council has full information on which to base any decision,” he said.

“There was a premature assumption made within the report about Standard Life Investments' intentions.

“When this became evident we pulled the paper.”

Standard Life Investments, the financiers behind the Parkway development due to open next month in Newbury, has refused to reveal how much it will charge to park at the mixed use retail and residential site.

The opening of the £150 million development will trigger the first annual payment of £300,000 to West Berkshire Council from SLI for the use of the car parks.

The money will be put towards the council's car park earning income.