Parking permit holders being 'misinformed' over proposed price hikes - claim - The Rugby Observer

Parking permit holders being 'misinformed' over proposed price hikes - claim

Rugby Editorial 26th Sep, 2019   0

RESIDENT parking permit holders are being ‘misinformed’ over proposed price hikes, it has been claimed.

Warwickshire County Council (WCC) wants to raise annual permit charges from the current £25 a year fee. It is considering two options – raising it to £80, or alternatively charging households £35 for a first permit, £55 for a second and £80 for a third.

But a county resident said the council was misinforming households by suggesting each permit cost £80 a year to administer – as many costs were one-offs.

Responding to a public consultation, Samantha Booth said: “This £80 figure they are quoting includes design and implementation of parking schemes, the legal process of amending traffic regulation orders, and signing and lining.




“All of the initial outlay for most resident parking zones has already been funded. Then there is only the monitoring of vehicles to be covered, which is also part of general parking monitoring.”

County council Labour group leader Richard Chattaway said the proposed rise was ‘totally unacceptable’ and needed rethinking, adding residents had always been told the cost of permits would be kept low.


He said: “A 220 per cent rise, when the cost of living is rising all the time, needs to be challenged.

“The administration need to think about how much are they collecting from parking fines. It should be used to alleviate this problem – and that was the original concept as I understood it.”

A council spokesperson said the changes were needed because the cost of running the permit scheme was not being met by current charges.

They added the overall Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) scheme – of which permits were a part – did not operate at a loss, but would not reveal how much the permit scheme deficit was.

Four weeks ago, The Observer put in a Freedom of Information request for a breakdown of WCC’s costs and income relating to its CPE scheme.

But yesterday (September 25), on the day the council’s response was due, a WCC spokesperson said they needed more time to process it “because there is a lot of information that needs to be sourced and collated”. They added they would “try to respond by October 2.”

The consultation on changes to on-street parking ended on Sunday (September 22). A report is due to go before WCC’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November for comment, and then to the council’s Cabinet early next year. The council aims to implement changes next April.

Labour members of Rugby Borough Council will today (Thursday September 26) propose a motion to ask WCC to reconsider the changes due to a “detrimental impact on local people’s lives”.

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