By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Liberal Democrat plans to hike residents’ parking permits by almost 26 per cent have been slammed by city councillors amid concerns over “bull****” reasons to justify the increase.
Gloucestershire County Council’s chiefs are hoping to raise £338,000 more during the next financial year by charging residents more for residential parking permits and on-street parking fees.
Their budget proposals, which were scrutinised at the corporate overview and scrutiny committee on January 7, suggest increasing a households’ first parking permit from £63.60 currently to £80 from April – an increase of 25.8 per cent.
The cost for a second parking permit would also be hiked to £160 from £127.35 currently.
On-street parking charges would also be increased at above inflation rates, council chiefs said.
Finance, assets and transformation cabinet member Colin Hay (All Saints and Oakley) told the meeting they were looking to increase the charges to help cover costs.
“We think it’s justified,” he said. “It will still mean a deficit for that area but we do need to catch up on those charges.
“When you look at the charges compared to other parts of the country. We are towards the top end. But it varies so much.”
He said there are areas where residential permits are free and other areas where they are much more expensive than in the county.
Cllr Hay also told the meeting the increase in on-street parking charges would bring them more in line with what the district authorities charge in their car parks.
“What we are trying to do is bring the on-street charges closer to the off-street charges in some of those areas,” he said.
But Kingsholm and Wotton Councillor Jeremy Hilton (LD), who represents an area with residential parking permit zones, slammed the proposals and the “bulls**t” justification for the hike.
He said they had been provided with “absolutely no written evidence” to justify the “excessive” increases.
And he asked what the percentage increase would be on pay and display increase.
“I bet they are not going up at 28 per cent,” he said.
“The people that have to pay the permits because others use their streets as a free car park are now being proposed to be excessively overcharged.
“The permits have gone up, time and time again in the past.”
He said it was totally unacceptable.
“All I get, and I’ve had this from Cllr Hay before, is just bulls**t from him about why we need to put it up.
“I’ve had no justification. Not anything in writing, or accounts to justify this increase.
“I’m frankly annoyed about it.”
Cllr Hay said he could tell Cllr Hilton was annoyed and explained he had the figures just before Christmas and needed to have another look at them.
“In terms of what I wanted to be able to demonstrate, I’ve only just done that in the last few days,” he said.
He said the Lib Dems had a group meeting the day before the meeting but the figures needed to be put in a table before they were passed on.
Cllr Hay said district councils have put up charges and in some cases they have put them up halfway through the year to “cover gaps”.
Sustainable transport and strategic highways cabinet member Roger Whyborn (LD, Benhall and Up Hatherley) said the on-street parking charging will go up by more than inflation.
Conservative group leader Stephen Davies (Hardwicke and Severn) said there was “no drift” on parking charges by the previous administration.
He explained it was a conscious decision by the Tories to not hike charges despite pressure from officers to increase some of the charges.
“We didn’t,” he said. “This is a decision your administration has made. Not a case of addressing drift.”
Hempsted and Westgate Councillor Rebecca Trimnell (LD) said she was deeply concerned about the proposed 26 per cent fee increase on the first permit.
She said there are a lot of residents in her division who live in housing association flats.
“They don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “What Cllr Hay was saying ‘well it’s not much of an increase’, I would refute that.
“Actually it is a big increase for someone who is probably on the poverty line.”
Council leader Lisa Spivey (LD, South Cerney) said they would get back to the councillors with the figures requested.
“I absolutely appreciate that for some people, 40p a week is more money than they can afford,” she said.
She said the council needs to make difficult decisions and be really pragmatic and they need to take a balanced approach due to financial pressures affecting the authority.