On-street parking charges approved but that's not the end of the road for motorists

West Berkshire Council’s member for highways and transport, Pamela Bale, (Con, Pangbourne) last week approved plans to introduce parking bays on roads including Bartholomew Street (outside of the Pedestrian Zone), Broadway, Catherine Road, Cheap Street, Faraday Road industrial area (including Ampere Road, Fleming Road, Kelvin Road and Marconi Road), Kings Road West, Link Road, Newtown Road, Northbrook Street (outside of the Pedestrian Zone), Old Bath Road, Pelican Lane and West Mills.
However, the Liberal Democrat group has confirmed that it will be leading the charge against the approved plans and will demand that West Berksire Council's Overview and Scrutiny Commission look at the issue again.
At the start of the year, an informal consultation prompted 171 responses, including three separate petitions, one of which contained 1,719 signatures objecting to the proposal.
Leader of West Berkshire Council’s Liberal Democrat group, Jeff Brooks (Thatcham West), said that introducing parking charges would affect the business community and the vibrancy of Newbury town centre.
He said that Mrs Bale did not have appeared to listen to people and added: “I wasn’t surprised as I have never seen them change their mind after consultation.”
He added that the Liberal Democrats had also been turned down when they asked for a debate when 1, 500 signatures had been collected as it is the policy with neighbouring local authorities.
Mobile caterer Paul Lucas (pictured), who has run Paul’s Breakfast Bar in Faraday Road for the past 11 years, said that he already paid a street trading licence and was now being forced to pay almost £400 per year on top of this for parking his car.
West Berkshire Council had said that making street traders pay the toll would be considered on a case-by-case basis and that exemptions could be granted at officer’s discretions, however, already having spoken to the highways department, Mr Lucas said this was not the case for him.
He had already been told by highways department he would have to pay the charge for his car which he uses to pull the trailer.
He said: “The car is an integral part of the business.
“I’m going to be stuck with paying the charges which will put me in an unfortunate disadvantage to other traders in my field.
“Having to pay the charges will have a detrimental impact on my business – I don’t want to put my prices up but I’m going to have to.”
Empire Cafe owner, Wendy Berkeley, said that the decision came as a blow to businesses in that end of town.
She said: “This end of town needs every encouragement we can to attract footfall; an additional negative item like this one is going to have a detrimental effect.”
Mrs Bale said: “We have several jobs - one is to make sure we make the best use of the road network which includes the residents and the businesses.
“Another is to keep a turnover without impacting on residents but to make sure people can come into town – that’s why we kept it free for 30 minutes in town centre areas for people who just want to pop in.”